The Study of Maritime Fraud and Its Effect on Competitiveness of Nigerian Seaport (A Study of Apapa Seaport)

Abstract

Ports play a key role in the Nigeria economy and development, as nearly 75% of the trade between the Nigeria and the rest of the world is handled in ports. Thus, the importance of ensuring efficiency in ports is related to the ability of the country to be competitive at international level. Unfortunately, corruption and extortion by the shipping agencies, terminal operators and government officials has continued to frustrate importers leading to price hike of commodities. This study is on maritime fraud and its effect on competitiveness of Nigerian seaport. The researchers adopted a sample size of 343 which was drawn from a population sample of 2,417. The questionnaire collected from the respondents was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that government agency’s dishonesty affects the efficiency of customs procedures, also that fraudulent misrepresentation impacts on port service quality, cargo theft and clearing delays impact on ports service quality and the competitiveness of Nigeria seaports. The following recommendations were made; proactive disciplinary measure should be taken against dishonest government agency officials; custom procedures should be simplified through automation to ensure efficiency and that cargo tracking and monitoring instruments should be adopted to reduce cargo theft in Apapa seaports.