CPPE advocates domestic processing capacity before imposing restrictions
Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) has lamented that Nigeria loses significantly every day due to operational inefficiencies at the ports, which manifest in missed opportunities, jobs not created, and delayed economic growth.

This was stated at a recent three-day stakeholder engagement in Lagos organised by PEBEC in collaboration with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), titled: “Achieving a Seven-Day Cargo Dwell Time.”

The session, which was held at the Lagos Port Complex (LPC) in Apapa, followed an extensive “shadowing” exercise where officials observed real-time vessel berthing and cargo clearance operations at both the Tin Can Island and Lagos Port complexes.

Speaking at the event, PEBEC Director General, Zahrah Mustapha, emphasised that the session was designed to move beyond identifying hurdles toward implementing long-overdue practical solutions.

Mustapha noted that the initiative integrates both government regulators and private sector stakeholders to ensure transparency and accountability, with the ultimate goal of reducing cargo dwell time and improving vessel turnaround time.

Earlier, the Managing Director of the NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, reiterated the authority’s commitment to supporting PEBEC’s mandates.

He said NPA’s progress efforts included collaborating with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to deploy the Port Community System (PCS), which would serve as the digital backbone for the National Single Window, a move expected to eliminate manual bottlenecks and synchronise port operations.

Dantsoho said the outcomes of this engagement were expected to be implemented within the coming months.