From Apapa Gridlock to Aba Prosperity: How the Bello Framework Can Decongest Lagos and Industrialize the Southeast

By LOD Onyeji 

The most expensive parking lot in Africa is not a lot at all. It is the 25-kilometer corridor from Apapa to Maryland in Lagos.

For two decades, more than 70% of Nigeria's container traffic — 546,931 TEUs in Q3 2025 alone — has been forced through Apapa and Tin Can Island ports. The result, documented by the World Bank's Container Port Performance Index, was predictable: in 2020, Apapa and Tin Can ranked among the world's worst-performing ports with scores of -61 and -68. At peak congestion, fewer than 50 trucks were evacuated daily, wait times stretched to 3 weeks, cargo movement costs rose by 450%, and the economy lost an estimated N2.5 trillion annually.

This is the logistical bottleneck that Barr. Hassan Bello, former Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers' Council (NSC), spent eight years designing a solution for.

The Bello Doctrine: A Workable Innovation

Bello's innovation was not to build another seaport. It was to unbundle the seaport.

Conceived under the Federal Government's transport reform and approved by the Federal Executive Council in March 2006, the Inland Dry Port (IDP) project under Bello was built on three empirical pillars:

1. The BOOT Legal Architecture: All six original IDPs — Isiala-Ngwa (Abia State), Erunmu-Ibadan, Heipang-Jos, Kano, Funtua, and Maiduguri — were structured on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) Public-Private Partnership model. This de-risked public capital and forced private operational efficiency.

2. The Rail-Linked Imperative: Bello's non-negotiable warning at the 2019 validation workshop: "Inland ports must have rail linkage". Without standard-gauge rail, a dry port is merely a warehouse. Goods for the hinterland must be examined and cleared in the hinterland, not trucked 600km from Lagos. This is what cuts transport cost, road carnage, and demurrage.

3. The Operational Manual Standardization: Bello engaged CPCS Transcom to draft an international-best-practice Operational Manual to ensure IDPs are not "slow and manually driven". It codified customs, shipping, and storage procedures — the software of a port.

That framework delivered results. Today Nigeria has three operational IDPs: Kaduna Inland Dry Port, Dala Inland Dry Port in Kano where Bello now serves as lead consultant, and Funtua Dry Port in Katsina. Following the September 2025 directive of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, these assets are being transferred from the NSC to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) precisely because "a regulator cannot function as an operator" and the NPA is better positioned to integrate them into the national port network.

The early validation is clear: After the 2021 introduction of the Ètò Electronic Call-Up System, Tin Can and Apapa moved from the global bottom to the 10th and 12th most improved ports in the world in the 2025 CPPI, improving their scores from -68/-61 to -26. NPA data shows Q3 2025 export-laden containers surged 1,085% to 69,039 TEUs, from 5,812 TEUs a year earlier, proving that decongestion and export consolidation work.

The Southeast Imperative: Why Aba Must Emulate Kano

The Southeast is Nigeria's densest commercial cluster, yet its designated IDP — Isiala-Ngwa in Abia State — remains uncompleted while Dala and Funtua are operational. The cost is empirical: Igbo importers pay N600,000-N700,000 to move a 40-foot container within Lagos and N1.2 million to haul it to the East, a double-tax on competitiveness.

To replicate the Bello Framework in the Southeast, businessmen in Onitsha, Aba, and Nnewi should adopt this four-point emulation model:

1. Private Consortium, Not Solo Effort: Bello's BOOT model requires aggregation. Southeast chambers of commerce (ACCIMA, ONCCIMA) should form a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) — "South-East Inland Logistics Ltd" — to co-invest with the Abia State Government, just as Dala was facilitated. This solves the "appropriate legal framework" challenge Bello identified.

2. Demand Site Infrastructure Audit: The current technical discussions rightly address "infrastructure access, site conditions, physical planning and the need for technical consultations." For Isiala-Ngwa, this means auditing the 2km link to the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri narrow gauge and lobbying for standard-gauge connection under the $1 billion port modernization programme approved by President Tinubu.

3. Replicate the Operational Manual, Not Just the Building: The planned assessment visits to Dala and Funtua to evaluate "operational requirements and infrastructure needs" must be codified. Southeast operators must adopt Bello's manual for customs pre-clearance, container freight station (CFS) operations, and export consolidation — turning Aba Made goods into direct export cargo, which NPA's Dantsoho notes Nigeria currently under-handles at only 25% of West Africa cargo despite 60% of regional GDP.

4. Integrate with the National Single Window: The Federal Government's push for a Port Community System and National Single Window means a container destined for Isiala-Ngwa can be declared in Lagos but examined and released in Abia, eliminating the Apapa gridlock entirely.

Conclusion

The renewed push for private investment is not about building warehouses in the bush. It is about strengthening maritime logistics infrastructure to improve access to international trade for businesses outside coastal areas.

Bello proved that a dry port is not a building; it is a coordinated cargo transportation system between seaports and inland destinations. If Southeast industrialists emulate that — with pooled capital, rail-linked planning, and Bello's operational standardization — they will not only reclaim N2.5 trillion in lost logistics value, they will help the NPA finally decongest Lagos ports and roads for good.