Apapa access road overloaded with 7,000 trucks daily – NPA

Trucks parked on the port access road

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, has stated that the Apapa access road, designed to accommodate approximately 2,400 trucks daily, carried more than 7,000 trucks.

Dantsoho made the call recently while speaking at the African Ports Conference in Casablanca, Morocco, according to a statement.

He added that the resulting congestion undermined reliability, increased delays and diverted trade, highlighting the need for coordinated reforms across port infrastructure, transport corridors and digital systems.

“Recalling that cargo previously remained at Lagos ports for as long as three weeks, while the Apapa access road, designed to accommodate approximately 2,400 trucks daily, carried more than 7,000 trucks,” Dantsoho said.

Dantsoho stressed that the NPA began by addressing fundamental operational challenges before moving towards more advanced technologies.

“The Eto electronic truck call-up system helped address corridor gridlock. This year, we went live with the National Single Window and a beta version of the Port Community System, advancing digital coordination among Customs, terminals, shipping lines and regulators,” he said.

According to him, the reforms were already producing encouraging results, pointing to Nigeria’s performance in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index 2025.

The NPA boss reiterated that Tin Can Island Port ranked 10th and Apapa Port 12th among the world’s most improved ports in the index released in June 2026.

He added that Nigeria’s cargo throughput increased by 24.8 per cent to 129.3 million metric tonnes in 2025.

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While admitting that Nigeria’s port transformation was still ongoing, Dantsoho said the experience underscored the need to build robust digital infrastructure before expanding the deployment of AI across port operations.

“Our work is not complete. But the lesson is clear: digitalisation creates the information base; AI helps turn information into better decisions. We must build in that order,” he said.

He stressed that cybersecurity considerations should be integrated into infrastructure projects from the design stage rather than introduced after systems had been deployed.

The NPA boss said African ports could not effectively address cybersecurity threats and operational inefficiencies through isolated national efforts because maritime trade routes, shipping schedules and cargo corridors were interconnected.

He explained that disruptions affecting one port could have consequences for other ports and inland destinations, particularly along major regional trade corridors.

“Along the Abidjan–Lagos corridor, a delayed vessel can affect its next call. Cargo destined for Niger, Chad or Mali depends on effective links between ports, corridors and borders. If we modernise in isolation, we risk replacing paper-based fragmentation with digital fragmentation,” he said.

As the President of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa, Dantsoho proposed four priorities for strengthening regional cooperation among member ports.

“The first is the sharing of cyber threat intelligence through designated contacts, timely alerts and the exchange of lessons from security incidents. The second is the development of common data standards that would enable different port platforms to exchange essential information, even where the systems themselves are not identical. The third involves benchmarking port performance and strengthening professional training through regional cooperation,” Dantsoho said.