Opportunities and Challenges of Inland Waterways Transport in the Southwest Coastal Belt of Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria has 853 kilometers of coastline, 450 kilometers inland waterways and a sovereign right to 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone. In spite of this, water transport has a share of 1.6% of Nigeria’s domestic product. This study examines the opportunities and challenges of waterways transportation in the coastal area of Southwestern Nigeria. The specific objectives are to: (i) evaluate the potential of the area for Inland water transport development; (ii); examine the contribution of inland waterways transport to passenger and freight movement, (iii) examine the impact of inland waterways transportation on socio-economic development; and (iv) evaluate the problems of inland waterways transportation in the area. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources. Two types of questionnaires were administered in this study. A total of 415 copies of questionnaires (A) were administered to eight government agencies and 570 copies of questionnaires (B) were administered to residents. Both descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used. The descriptive methods employed are graphs, tables, charts, and central measures. The inferential analyses used in this study were factor analytical procedure, multiple regression methods and post hoc analysis. The study revealed that:- i, there are 48 river basins in the study area, with a combined basin area of 1,375 km2, 873 streams and a total stream length of 791.80 kilometers, drainage density of 1.73, stream frequency of 1.58 and drainage intensity of 1.10.These show that the potential of inland waterways transport is high; the report of ridership which was only available for Lagos state showed a progressive increase from 4.4 to 14.5 million between 2010 to 2014. There are 318 open fiber taxis, while travel time range from 10 to 70 minutes. Major cargo are wet cargo, dry cargo, farm products, and fish. However, 10% of the cargo is contraband. Cargo is charged per kilo, size occupied, by value, and by distances. Duration of boats rent is one week to five weeks; the factors underlying the socio- economic impacts at the jetties vary from one jetty to the other. In Lagos, six factors explained 68.547% of the variance; in Ogun Jetties , five factors explained 78.9% of the variance, while in Ondo Jetties six factors explained 69.1% to the variance; the results of the analysis further showed that 4 major problems impacted on inland waterways development. These are: financial constraints, congestion at the jetties, insufficient jetty facility, and political influence. They altogether explained 92.02% of the variance in the explanation. The paper concludes that inland waterways have a high potential for transportation, but it is largely underutilized. The study recommended stronger policies and the need to encourage private- public participation in waterway transport development in the southwest coastal area of Nigeria.