Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) has identified opportunities to integrate truck appointments with yard capacity and vessel schedules, allowing port gates, storage yards and quays to operate as a coordinated system instead of functioning as separate points of congestion.

The Managing Director, NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, said the country was laying the foundations for more intelligent port operations through investments in digital coordination, infrastructure modernisation and improved traffic management.

He explained that the NPA oversees seven ports across the country, from Lagos to Calabar, each with different infrastructure, cargo profiles and levels of digital maturity.

According to him, these differences make it necessary to develop solutions that reflect the operational realities of individual ports rather than impose a uniform approach without considering local requirements.

He recalled that cargo previously remained at Lagos ports for as long as three weeks, while the Apapa access road, designed to accommodate approximately 2,400 trucks daily, carried more than 7,000 trucks.

The resulting congestion undermined reliability, increased delays and diverted trade, highlighting the need for coordinated reforms across port infrastructure, transport corridors and digital systems.

Dantsoho said the NPA began by addressing fundamental operational challenges before moving towards more advanced technologies.

“The Eto electronic truck call-up system helped address corridor gridlock. This year, we went live with the National Single Window and a beta version of the Port Community System, advancing digital coordination among Customs, terminals, shipping lines and regulators,” he said.

He said the reforms were already producing encouraging results, pointing to Nigeria’s performance in the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index 2025.

He added that Nigeria’s cargo throughput increased by 24.8 per cent to 129.3 million metric tonnes in 2025.

Although he acknowledged that the country’s port transformation remained a work in progress, Dantsoho said the experience demonstrated the importance of establishing reliable digital foundations

He said the NPA is also implementing a $1 billion modernisation programme for Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, which presented an opportunity to incorporate intelligent maintenance systems and secure digital infrastructure into the country’s port renewal efforts.

Dantsoho also stated the development of common data standards that would enable different port platforms to exchange essential information, even where the systems themselves are not identical.

He disclosed that the NPA had developed a port performance benchmarking framework in collaboration with the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and expressed the authority’s readiness to share the experience with other African ports.