The National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), at the weekend faulted the country’s implementation of its port concession programme, saying it deviates sharply from international norms. The body also described as “insignificant” last week’s announcement of a $500 million investment by APM Terminal, a port concessionaire, to boost its ports operations.
President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Lucky Amiwero, regretted that while most concessions abroad are time-bound and focused on specific developmental targets such as equipment procurement or capacity enhancement, Nigeria’s model has become open-ended and lawless.
He warned that the concession framework remains “fundamentally flawed, legally unsound, and economically damaging,” noting that the much-touted investment should not distract from the urgent need for systemic overhaul. He accused the government of ceding critical port functions without legal structure, oversight, or economic strategy.
“The government should set up a technical committee to review all the concessions because the concessions are not concessions, they are lease agreements. And they are supposed to stay for five years. What we are seeing now is an unending concession regime without law, without assessment, and without regulation,” Amiwero said.
According to him, the current port leases, some of which he claimed stretches up to 20 years, contravene provisions in the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Act and have contributed to economic losses.
“The lease agreements need to be reviewed completely. They are not in line with the law; these agreements are eating deep into the economy,” he said.
The NCMDLCA boss insisted that any claims by concessionaires must be subject to rigorous independent evaluation, insisting that stakeholders, not terminal operators, should advise the government on whether concessions are delivering value.
“There must be a committee to go for assessment, to look at the cost and correspond it with what is on ground. That is how serious economies operate. The stakeholders are the ones to tell the government whether the concession is moving right, not the concessionaire,” he said.
The Association therefore urged the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, to conduct a comprehensive reform of the entire port system including Customs, terminals, and regulations, warning that unless Nigeria builds a coordinated, lawful, and expertly managed port regime, no amount of investment will yield lasting benefit.
“This is the time to overhaul the port system – Customs, terminals, everything. There’s no coordination, no law, and no proper regulator. We need to start afresh, with the right expertise and clear laws. Otherwise, these problems will persist, regardless of how much anyone claims to invest,” he warned.
Amiwero dismissed APM Terminals’ recently announced $500 million investment in Nigeria’s ports as insignificant when weighed against the economic damage allegedly caused by the terminal operator since the port concession regime began nearly two decades ago.
“What is $500 million put together to what they have done to the country?” Amiwero asked rhetorically, even as he questioned the real value of the investment.
For instance, he maintained that APMT and other concessionaires in the system, should take responsibility for the infamous Apapa gridlock which has arisen and worsened following the flawed concession system, first introduced during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.
“The concession created the gridlock. The man who concessioned the port, did it wrongly. So there is a need to overhaul the whole system and come up with a law,” he said.
He therefore charged Oyetola to urgently establish a committee of maritime experts to rework the concession framework, restore order, and make Nigeria’s ports competitive again.
“This thing must be reviewed. We are losing traffic to neighbouring countries, the port is going down. You don’t run a system like this anywhere else in the world,” he warned.
He regretted that delays in container positioning can span weeks, with demurrage charges hitting N65,000 daily. “Before you position your container, it could take two or three weeks. You must pay so much to APMT and to other terminals. This needs to be reviewed completely,” he stated. Amiwero’s position may have been further accentuated by the Chairman, House Committee on Customs and Excise, Leke Abejide, during an oversight visit to the Nigeria Customs Service’s Apapa Area Command, where he lambasted APMT for allegedly frustrating trade and breaching the terms of its concession.
“APMT is not here to help Nigeria. They are here to kill the economy,” Abejide declared, lamenting the cost of demurrage and port congestion. He described the electronic call-up system as a failure and vowed that the National Assembly might not renew APMT’s concession when it expires.
But the Federal Government, however, welcomed the investment which it described as a sign of international confidence in Nigeria’s port sector. While on a visit to Oyetola, the APM Terminals executives announced their $510 million commitment — $500 million for terminal expansion and $10 million for scanning infrastructure at the Apapa Port.
“We are pleased with the quality of infrastructure that APM Terminals has delivered at the Lagos Port Complex. This new investment must align with our agenda to modernise Nigerian ports and enhance competitiveness across both Western and Eastern port corridors,” Oyetola said, assuring that plans to deepen the Lagos port draft to 16 metres and automate cargo inspection processes using scanners to ease trade bottlenecks were being considered.
“We are pleased with the quality of infrastructure that APM Terminals has delivered at the Lagos Port Complex. This new investment must align with our agenda to modernise Nigerian ports and enhance competitiveness across both Western and Eastern port corridors,” Oyetola said.
