Commerce is an essential part of human efforts put in during economic activities designed to produce growth performances. Commerce structures the circulatory system that underpins the vital services in trade deals. This takes on board the transportation and distribution of goods and services using well developed infrastructure to facilitate the efficient flow of manufactured products or goods from various manufacturers located in different parts of the world to end users. It is this aspect of commercial activities that critically pulls in the essence of trading as a full blown, lifetime vocation and career with its attached occupational professionalism and expertise for the “traders”.
The trading deals involve exchanging goods and services in a much technologically improved facilitation mode in the current age where the marketplace is driven by the essential functions of a modern economy – in production, consumption and distribution. The distribution function, therefore, is a significantly focused and an important economic task; otherwise, global or international trade would not have been easy and technologically accessible (without internet connectivity for online real-time negotiations) from different locations of the world, interestingly again, as being experienced in today’s modern global economy; for international trade (world trade) activities.
The holistic approach to economic growth and sustainability can be achieved through a model of value addition (manufacturing) to Nigeria’s locally sourced agricultural products and the other naturally endowed raw materials (especially the mined mineral resources, both the solid minerals and the petroleum products). Their shipments are either outward bound (exports of raw materials and/or semi finished goods) or inward bound (imported goods into the local market); depending on the economic principle of “comparative advantage” for that particular item, among trading partners of all the nations of the world (although this is not strictly observed in Nigeria by her national oil company, NNPCL on petroleum products).
The world’s trading activities involve a whole lot of logistics within the shipping industry under international trade services. However, this aspect of international trading activities has become primarily the responsibility of the government in that economy; for the desired management outcome. This is because, the success or poor performance of any particular economy could be directly traceable to the nation’s corporate governance that provides such opportunities for businesses to either thrive successfully, or perform poorly within their respective borders. This, therefore, calls for adequate provision of facilities and effective procedures for running the shipment infrastructure (wharf maintenance and services) needed to foster ease of doing business at this shipment stage is vital; and ought to be fixed by the government of the day.
In Nigeria, presently, ports activities, services and management still pose a challenge and it is a vexing problem within the economy. This is due to the inefficiency in the clearing of imported goods into the country. They continuously perform sub-optimally; which indirectly affects commerce negatively. Part of the inflationary pressure challenges (a hidden price or invisible charges) Nigerians are facing is as a result of the inefficient port services presently being experienced at only the Lagos axis of the seaports (Apapa and Tin Can), referred to as Lagos port bottleneck.
This is where over 70 percent of cargo being cleared into Nigeria (maritime trade) is unreasonably lumped, neglecting the strategic positioning of port operations, effective usage, and possible rehabilitation of the other dysfunctional seaports. Some of these dysfunctional ports, including Onne, Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri, Sapele, and Onitsha River water ports services need, urgently, government intervention, to free up the Lagos ports axis of the unreasonable ports congestion.
This is possible if the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) moves port operations away from Lagos to the other underutilised and/or unused facilities located in other geopolitical zones in the country. This would have, since a long time ago, eased tension and stress attached to clearing of goods coming into the country. A country that serves and supports a huge market of over 200 million people, with goods and services, could also give the country a better economic future, if the ports services are strategically located, without any politically motivated attachment, to instill efficiency and fairness in the nation’s economic corporate governance.
The South Eastern part of the country is predominantly the home base of full time traders that operate in most of the local markets, located in all parts of the country. Trading skills and entrepreneurial talents run in their DNA; although a significant population of the lot is growing male children that are semi illiterates or school dropouts, who are subsequently groomed and nurtured through trading apprenticeship schemes, which is a training culture for commerce, known as “igba boi” in Igbo land.
The government should consider, as a policy, the strategic location of ports of final destination of all the imported goods, to render maritime services within the proximity of the various markets where all those imported goods are taken to (Eastern flank being the heartland of commerce that take up over 65 percent of all imports cleared in Lagos), to cut down huge costs of transporting cleared goods that end up in Onitsha, Aba, Port Harcourt or Owerri warehouses, after travelling thousands of kilometers by road.
This will also help to reduce the congestion that helps build up imputed, unnecessary costs on goods in the economy, resulting from the very inefficient clearing period of 21 days, which cannot be compared with places like Singapore for instance, with just six hours duration to clear containers.
As a matter of urgent policy, the government should decongest Lagos ports by making Warri seaport, and Onitsha river port to start operations without further delays, if the economy is sincerely meant to grow astronomically without market inflations.
