Abstract
This paper assessed the trend of productivity of the existing six Nigerian ports. Secondary data was extracted from National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Annual Reports, Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) Annual Reports, and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Annual reports. Using the Data Envelopment Analysis technique, it was discovered that Calabar Port had been under-utilized towards the achievement of the required results. On the contrary, Rivers Port requires technical touches in her operations. As a liquid bulk port, the time of loading and discharging of commodities are often more than any other type of port and the turnaround time at this port are often more. Scale optimization is also required in Rivers Port. Inferentially, Lagos Port has been operating on optimal scale size but fluctuating managerial efficiency was experienced in the operation years. As a matter of findings, Tin Can Island has a similar trend to that of Onne Port with low productivities in the pre-concession period which improved consistently in the post-concession year of 2010 till the year 2015. It was also observed that Tin Can Island Port operated on under-utilization of inputs resources in the pre-concession periods till the post-concession year 2010. This reflects the element of wastefulness concerning both inputs and outputs quantities. Delta Port experienced fluctuating scale and technical efficiency trends in both pre and post concession years. Hence, it is observed that productivities' trends vary among the concessioned Nigerian Ports. These could be as a result of the influence of varied exogenous and endogenous factors on individual Port.
Highlights
Nigerian Seaports have been serving the main purpose of transferability of larger quantities of spatially distributed commodities in Nigeria and other neighbouring landlocked countries to designated geographical locations and transferability of required commodities from other countries to Nigeria and other neighbouring West African countries i.e., Nigerian Seaport takes 50% of export trade from Nigeria and 70% of the importation to Nigeria (Nigerian Ports Authority, 2015)
During the 1980s era, higher productivities were recorded in the operation years 1984, 1985 and 1987 with technical efficiency and scale efficiency scores of (1.0) but declined steadily to low technical efficiency and scale efficiency scores of (0.79) in 1992 and productivity did not improve beyond TE score of (0.91) and SE score of (0.93) which was attained in the operation year 1996 in the 1990s era
The port was efficient in scale and technically efficient in the preceding operation years 2002 and 2004 with TE and SE scores of (1.0)
Summary
Nigerian Seaports have been serving the main purpose of transferability of larger quantities of spatially distributed commodities in Nigeria and other neighbouring landlocked countries to designated geographical locations and transferability of required commodities from other countries to Nigeria and other neighbouring West African countries i.e., Nigerian Seaport takes 50% of export trade from Nigeria and 70% of the importation to Nigeria (Nigerian Ports Authority, 2015). Nigerian Seaports have been playing a vital role in the growth of the Nigerian economy and the West African economy as a whole in the area of international transactions and trade. This significant importance of Nigerian seaports warrants adequate and consistent management of their resources (input mix) for sustainability and the resultants of the management can be measured via their performances or productivities over time. Port as a system comprises a cascade of operations ranging from land operations to terminal operations and its productivity is a concern to individual stakeholders but a mutuality between port authorities, private terminal operators, logistics operators (freight forwarders), and large shippers e.tc. It is crucial to ascertain how to port's resources are being utilized in the individual area of productivity just as Chung, 1993 stated that progressive port manager always desires to know how extensively and intensively port assets are being utilized as well as how well the operations perform financially in terms of port productivity indicators
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