The number of vehicles imported into the country fell sharply by 60.4 per cent, year-on-year, YoY, to 10,991 in the first half of this year, H1’24, reflecting the impact of the naira depreciation and general economic downturn.

This was contained in the report of the just concluded quarterly meeting of the Nigerian Port Consultative Council, NPCC.

The report stated: “Vehicle Traffic shows a total 10,991 units of vehicles was handled during the period under review, indicating a drop of 60.8 per cent from 28,024 units in 2023.”

Following the same trend, the number of ships that called at the nation’s seaports fell by 4.3 per cent, YoY to 251 in H1’24 from 275 in H1’23.

But despite the drop in vessel calls, the Gross Tonnage of ships rose 6.9 per cent to 32.614 million metric tons in H1’24 from 30,504, 276 in H1’23

The report added: “The cargo throughput, excluding crude oil, stood at 21.186 million metric tons against 18.234 million metric tons in 2023 indicating an increase of 16.1 per cent.

“Inward cargo traffic reached 13.563 million metric tons representing a 10.5 of cargo throughput in 2023. Outward cargo traffic was 7.6234 million metric tons, representing 27.7 per cent.

Container traffic for the period under review stood at 398,447 between January and June showing an increase of 2.3 percent from 389,303 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units, TEUs handled in 2023.

“A further analysis of container traffic revealed that import containers accounted for 3.4 per cent with 198,415 TEUs while export container traffic stood at 195,106 TEUs representing a decrease of 1.2 percent of total container traffic.

“A breakdown of export container traffic revealed that empty containers accounted for about 36.3 per cent of total export container traffic. The average turn-around time of vessels was 4.6 days, compared with 5.1 days in 2023. The significant improvement in average turn-around time for vessels was brought about by the impact of the Lekki Deep Sea Port which achieved an average turn-around of only one day.

“The increase in Gross Registered Tonnage, GRT, despite the drop in the number of vessel calls revealed the berthing of bigger vessels, especially at Lekki Port where the average GRT of vessels is 3,801,191. This further gives credibility to the importance of a deep seaport to the Nigerian maritime or port development.

“Therefore, the collective efforts of all stakeholders are required to ensure that Lekki Deep Seaport does not suffer the same fate as Apapa for ease of cargo evacuation.”