How Clearing the Road to Prosperity Works: Lessons for Apapa from Ports That Got It Right
By Lod Onyeji When the Nigerian Ports Authority and Nigeria Police announced a joint crackdown on illegal checkpoints along the Apapa and Tin Can Island corridors, they weren’t just targeting roadblocks. They were targeting a drag on Nigeria’s economic engine. Investigations led by NPA Managing Director Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho found extortion points, overlapping security mandates, and traffic bottlenecks stretching beyond the gates at Apapa and Tin Can to Berger, Mile 2, and connecting highways. Those frictions translate directly to cost: every hour a truck sits in Apapa gridlock adds to demurrage, fuel burn, and spoilage. Freight forwarders and AMATO representatives at the Lagos stakeholders’ meeting described years of harassment and unpredictable charges that make Nigerian logistics more expensive than regional peers. Evidence from advanced economies suggests that clearing unauthorized road friction yields measurable GDP gains. After Dutch authorities and port police removed...
