By Godwin Oritse

Nigeria currently ranks 75th in the Trade Logistics Global Economy 2014 report. Certainly this represent a quantum leap from 121st position in 2012.

It is an indication that logistics business is getting better.It features the Logistics Performance Index (LPI), which the World Bank has produced every two years since 2007.

According to the report, the LPI measures the on-the-ground efficiency of trade supply chains, or logistics performance. This year’s edition covers 160 countries.

Supply chains are the backbone of international trade and commerce.

It explained that teach country’s logistics encompasses freight transportation, warehousing, border clearance, payment systems, and increasingly many other functions outsourced by producers and merchants to dedicated service providers.

The importance of good logistics performance for economic growth, diversification, and poverty reduction is now firmly established.

Part of the report reads “ Although logistics is performed mainly by private operators, it has become a public policy concern of national governments and regional and international organizations.

“Supply chains are a complex sequence of coordinated activities.

“The performance of the whole depends on such government interventions as infrastructure,

logistics services provision, and cross-border trade facilitation.

“The LPI and its components help countries understand the challenges that they and their trading partners face in making their national logistics perform strongly.

“The LPI complements, rather than substitutes for, the in-depth country assessments that many countries have undertaken in recent years, and many of them with World Bank support.

“The LPI scores are not to be overemphasized, however—a country’s actual ranking or score should not be interpreted in isolation, but instead whether it ranks among the best or worst performers.

“The LPI allows leaders in government, business, and civil society to better assess the competitive advantage created by good logistics and to understand the relative importance of different interventions.” it added.

Speaking in defence of Nigeria’s performance, the Vice President of the Chartered Institute opf Logistics and Transport, CILT ( West) Dr. Alban Igwe said that the country has made a lot of progress in the logisctis business.

Igwe said that with proper coordination, the Nigeria’s position will improve in another two years.