The opening of the port access road to Tin-Can Island, according to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on Monday, has resulted in a rise in the quantity of cargo exported from the nation.
Speaking during a working visit to the authority with the president of the Association of Nigerian Licenced Customs Agents (ANLCA), Emenike Nwokeji, the chairman of the Board of Trustee (BoT), Taiwo Mustapha, and other association members, Mohammed Bello-Koko, the managing director of NPA, stated that clearing the port access road was a commitment to improving ease of doing business and strengthening Nigeria’s trade balance by encouraging exports.
The association’s management went to the NPA offices to congratulate the authority helmsman on his measures to relieve the traffic congestion that had threatened the access routes to the Apapa/Tincan Ports for ten years and made conducting business in Nigeria more difficult.
In its international trade report for the first quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) noted that Nigeria had an N6.5 trillion trade surplus from January to March of that year, according to Bello-Koko.
“We were able to break the long-standing traffic bottleneck that was harming our beloved Nigeria’s reputation and causing enormous revenue losses by collaborating with the Lagos State Government and other relevant stakeholders in an open and sincere manner,” the statement reads.
“To maintain the sanity on the port access that has resulted in the unprecedented increase in export numbers, we have developed a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for cargo evacuation, which we would be implementing with renewed vigour going forward to sustain the growth in exports necessary to achieve the national trade surplus required to grow the domestic economy. We are committed to fulfilling the priorities as enunciated in the Presidential/Ministerial Performance Bond which we signed.”
In its international trade report for the first quarter of 2024, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which was made public on Sunday, noted that Nigeria had a trade surplus of N6.5 trillion from January to March of that year. According to Bello-Koko, the NBS revealed that Nigeria’s overall exports were N19.1 trillion, while its total imports were N12.6 trillion, meaning there was an N6.5 trillion trade surplus.
An economic measure of a good trade balance, where a country’s exports exceed its imports, is a trade surplus.