The Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) and the Organised Private Sector (OPS), have said the economy is currently losing about ₦600 billion in customs revenue, $10 billion on non-oil export and about ₦2.5 trillion corporate earnings across sectors.
LCCI President, Babatunde Paul Ruwase, who spoke at the launch of “Maritime Ports Reform in Nigeria: Executive Summary and Recommendations,” in Lagos yesterday said, industrial capacity utilisation currently stands between 38-40 per cent, saying about 40 per cent of businesses located around the Lagos ports environs have either relocated to other areas, scaled down operations, or completely shut down.
He said the condition of the ports have huge adverse implication for job creation, tax revenue and real economic activities, with estimated downside effect of about three per cent on the country’s GDP.
Ruwase said the report highlighted a worrisome level of deliberate resistance by some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to implement and enforce enabling regulations, including the 2017 Presidential Executive Orders relating to ports.
On their concerns, he regretted that 65 – 80 per cent of import clearance and export processing time, are caused by delays induced by MDAs as majority of the cargoes take between 5 – 14 days to clear, while some take as long as 20 days or more to clear.
He said about 5,000 trucks currently seek access to the Lagos ports on daily basis, while the port and its access roads were designed to take about 1,500 trucks daily.
He said the situation as deplorable as it is, has led to : “ Astronomical increase of trucks transport cost by 200 to 500 per cent over the last two years, longer cargo dwell time, disruption of production schedules of manufacturers, as raw materials are not delivered to factories in good time.