Trend analysis of the productivity of Nigerian seaports

This paper assessed the trend of productivity of the existing six Nigerian ports. Secondary data was extracted from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Annual Reports, Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) Annual Reports, and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual reports. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis technique, it was discovered that Calabar Port had been under-utilized towards the achievement of the required results. On the contrary, Rivers Port requires technical touches in her operations. As a liquid bulk port, the time of loading and discharging of commodities are often more than any other type of port and the turnaround time at this port are often more. Scale optimization is also required in Rivers Port. Inferentially, Lagos Port has been operating on optimal scale size but fluctuating managerial efficiency was experienced in the operation years. As a matter of findings, Tin Can Island has a similar trend to that of Onne Port with low productivities in the pre-concession period which improved consistently in the post-concession year of 2010 till the year 2015. It was also observed that Tin Can Island Port operated on under-utilization of inputs resources in the pre-concession periods till the post-concession year 2010. This reflects the element of wastefulness concerning both inputs and outputs quantities. Delta Port experienced fluctuating scale and technical efficiency trends in both pre and post concession years. Hence, it is observed that productivities' trends vary among the concessioned Nigerian Ports. These could be as a result of the influence of varied exogenous and endogenous factors on individual Port.