Port Gridlock Redux: Lagos and NPA Must Fix the ETO or Pay the Price
By Lod Onyeji Lagos, Nigeria — Five years after the Nigeria Port Authority launched the Electronic Truck Call Up System, Apapa’s port corridor is congested again. From Coconut Bus Stop to Costain, articulated tankers now park haphazardly on the carriageway, choking the main artery to the country’s busiest seaport. The Media Anti-Corruption Initiative reports that the February 2021 ETO rollout initially cut wait times. By early 2026, however, weak enforcement and poor system oversight have reversed those gains. The cost is measurable. Congestion on Apapa-Oshodi adds hours to each haul, raises demurrage and fuel expenses, and passes through to consumer prices. For a trade corridor that handles over 70 percent of Nigeria’s container traffic, inefficiency here becomes national inflation. Diagnosis: A management failure, not a technology failure The ETO did not fail because the software is impossible. It failed because compliance collapsed. Truck operators returned to the road wh...
