By Elizabeth Adegbesan

Foreign trade through Lagos ports (Apapa and Tin Can Island ports)   grew year-on-year (YoY)   by 9.3 percent to N37.93 trillion in the first nine months of 2023 (9m’23) from N34.69 trillion in 9m’22 amidst call for the federal government to decongest Lagos ports by opening up other ports in the country.

Analysis of data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics for 9m’23 showed that YoY, the value of exports through Lagos ports grew by 19 percent to N23.08 trillion from N19.39  trillion in 9m’22.

Similarly, the value of imports through the ports grew YoY by 39 percent to N16.22  trillion in 9m’23 from N11.65 trillion in 9m’22.

However, the value of trade through Port-Harcourt Port (Onne) stood at N632.87 billion in 9m’23, representing a 18.5 percent decline from N776.91 billion in 9m’22.

During the period, Tin Can Island  Port had the highest growth of 56 percent  in the value of trade to N3.06 trillion in 9m’23 from N1.96 trillion in 9m’22.

This was followed by  Apapa Port with a 20 percent  growth in the value of transactions to N34.91 trillion in 9m’23 from N29.09 trillion in 9m’22.

Port-Harcourt (Onne) port had a 15.8  percent growth in trade value to N1.97 trillion in 9m’23 from N1.7 trillion in 9m’22.

Quarter-on-quarter, QoQ, value of trade through the three ports stood at N11.1 trillion in the first quarter of 2023 and was up by 4.5 percent to N11.6 trillion in Q2’23. It further rose by 48 percent to  N17.2 trillion in Q3’23.

According to the NBS report, “In Q3, 2023, the bulk of export transactions were carried through Apapa Port with goods valued at N9.9 trillion or 95.8 percent of total exports.  

“This was followed by Tin Can Island Port which recorded N209.55 billion or 2.03 percent of total export. In terms of imports, correspondingly, Apapa Port also recorded the highest number of transactions valued at N5.28 trillion or 62.44 percent of total imports.  This was followed by Tin Can Island Port which accounted for goods valued at N1,094.10 billion or 12.94 percent, and Port-Harcourt (Onne) with N591.17 billion or 6.99 percent of total imports.”