Port Harcourt Port complex built by Lord Fredrick Lugard in 1912 and opened in 1913 the saqme time with Apapa Port
Nigerian leading maritime experts have called on the Federal Government to effectively divert the latest loan secured for the upgrade of Lagos ports of Apapa and Tincan considering the World Bank’s report on Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) for 2025, which listed Tincan Island Ports Complex and Apapa Port Complexes in the Top 20 Port Improvement category.
Business Hilights.ng reports that the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) provides a consistent, data-driven measure of global port efficiency by focusing on vessel time in port. It enables comparisons across ports and over time, helping identify where performance is improving and where challenges remain.
Ahead of the new global ranking, President Bola Tinubu had been in UK to seal a new Nigeria and the UK £746 million ($990 million) export finance agreement to comprehensively redevelop the Lagos Port Complex (Apapa Quays) and the Tin Can Island Port Complex.
The funding is expected to be used in improving the facilities at the two western ports even as no plan in place for borrowing for the eastern ports of Onne, Port Harcourt, Warri and Calabar or developing Onitsha River Port.
Accordingly and with the latest global top 20 ranking for Lagos ports, analysts say there is no need of still investing in ports that have received global recognition when there are others that are begging for improvement and modern facilities that Lagos Ports already have.
Aside the new loan, the concessionaire of Apapa Port, AMP Terminal had during a recent maritime summit in Rwanda announced that it is investing fresh $600m in the improvement of Apapa port, thus raising queries on the Federal Government’s loan on improving the same two ports of Apapa and Tincan even though the same government is aware that part of the concession agreement with port concessionaire is to invest in port improvement.
