The Port Advisory Council of Nigeria, PCCN, has said that 70 percent of the the nation’s seaports are in a coma as a result of the lack of competition exhibited by successive governments over time.
Speaking during a presentation of books and other academic materials to the leadership of the University of Lagos, Council President Otunba Kunle Folarin said that Nigeria has 17 ports, but as of today only six of them are operating.
Folarin also said that the inland nature of some of the 11 non-functioning ports also contributed to their demise, adding that these were the ports that fed Nigeria before the oil was discovered.
He said: “If you look at the Port Law, there are 17 ports there, how many are operating today, only six, and the rest are in a coma.
“Lack of competition and also because the ports are inland and no one is ready to provide the channel to work those ports.”
“Don’t forget that these were the ports that fed Nigeria, provided the export base for Nigeria, created foreign exchange for Nigeria before oil.
“Agricultural products, palm oil, wood and rubber; and these were the things that sustained Nigeria before the discovery of oil. “
