An evaluation of Nigerian ports post-concession performance

Purpose: The quest for efficiency is claimed to be the major objective of port privatisation and this has led many ports in Africa to undertake port reforms. Based on this, Nigerian ports were concessioned and operations were handed over in one scoop to private operators between 2006 and 2007. This paper is looking to investigate in the reform that took place in a very short period of time improved the performance of Nigerian ports. This paper is also looking to provide a model for future evaluation.
Research Approach: A window based DEA model with panel data will be employed to measure pre- and post concession Nigerian ports' performance to determine efficiency gains from port reform. Secondly, to demonstrate how concession influence efficiency, a DEA based Malmquist productivity Insex will be used to determine the sources of (in)efficiency by decomposing the efficiency into frontier shift effects and catch-up effects.
Findings and Originality: The results revealed that none of the ports is hundred percent efficient before and after concession but rather a tremendous increase in throughput and ship traffic after the reform in most of the ports. Apapa port is the most efficient while Calabar and Warri are inefficient although there were fluctuations in efficiency in all the ports. The research is inconclusive because it is still ongoing
Although some studies have investigated the relationship between port efficiency and privatisation however several gaps still exist as the studies are skewed in favour of container ports in the developed world, mainly in Europe. Therefore, the need arises to critically look at the overall efficiency of national port system to enhance the efficiency of global transport chain.
Research Impact: The study will contribute to existing literature on port performance being the first to evaluate the post concession performance of a major maritime player in Sub-Saharan Africa. It will contribute to the never- ending debate by the Academia on the effect of ownership or privatisation on efficiency from the perspective of port institutional reforms in the third world countries
Practical Impact: It will benefit the Federal Government of Nigeria as a reference document of the first five years of the port reform policy and help the Government to intervene in areas of observed inefficiencies and make adjustments where possible. On the part of the "Landlord" NPA it will help them in the performing their regulatory role by identifying the operators who are making inefficient use of the resources allocated to them and provide the basis for future evaluation. Finally, it will give the various stake holders in the Maritime Industry a full grasp of the effect of concession in a Nation's port as Nigeria is the first country in the world to hand over terminal operations in all her ports in one scoop.