Analysis on overseas cargo and freight costs by MoverDB, an online resource for international shipping, shows that the cost of shipping both 20-foot and 40-foot containers to Lagos ports from New York is the most expensive globally.
The report covers the shipping costs from New York and Los Angeles to 47 port cities globally.
Globally, the cost to ship cargo or freight by a shipping container from the United States to Apapa (Nigeria) is about the highest in the world.
It costs about $4,982 to ship a 20 feet container from New York to Apapa which is about twice the amount to ship a container of the same size to Cape Town (South Africa) – $2,542.
The country’s high costs of shipping have not correlation with distance. For instance, shipping from New York to Nigeria is nearly double the cost of shipping to South Africa even though Nigeria is closer, by nautical miles, to New York compared to South Africa.
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Much of the high costs of shipping to Nigeria is tied up in entrenched inefficiency at its local ports. For starters, Nigeria has very few functional ports even though its economy—Africa’s largest—continues to rely heavily on imports. The slow pace of inspections and offloading of shipping arrivals means that congestion and bottlenecks are nearly perpetual in Nigeria’s biggest port in Apapa, Lagos. The ports’ inefficiencies have for years enabled and incentivized corruption from official and unofficial middlemen promising to clear goods for a “fee”.
A probable reason for the higher costs to Apapa ports as compared to other ports in the world is the inefficiency embedded in the seaport operations at Apapa. The average turnaround time for ships at Apapa is estimated in excess of 30 days showing grave inefficiency as compared to an average of two days for the most efficient ports globally.
While the shipping prices in MoverDB’s report are accurate as of early 2017, anecdotal evidence suggests the reality hasn’t changed much since the reforms were introduced. Indeed, inefficiencies at the ports remained primed to allow clearing agents continue to play a key role in processing goods for importers while likely in cahoots with local customs officers. ”You can try to clear your container yourself but the problem is that customs will frustrate you. You have to go through an agent.” says the regular user, who asked not to be named as he still has to work with officials at the port.
