The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Nigeria has said that the transport and logistics sector did not record an impressive growth in the first quarter of 2018. This is even as it said that there are positive signs of the economic stability as fears on the foreign exchange rate have cleared.
The National Executive Director CILT Nigeria, Mr. Paul Ndibe who disclosed this in an interview with Primetime Reporters on Monday in Lagos however admitted that there had been series of development in the aviation sector even though that had not yielded any positive impact in case of the Nigerian aviation sector following the absence of a National Carrier which had been there over the years and had not abated.
Ndibe added that as far as public opinion was concerned, there was no visible mechanism to establish the national carrier and giving the increasing rate of attraction to air travel of which Nigeria was missing out in, that had not also added to the growth of the economy.
He continued,” On the road sector, no measureable signs of growth except that the commercial intercity bus services had continued, there are no signs of new injection of more participants, the ones that are there are beginning to stabilize and to see if they can increase their potentials but there are no signs of new investors entering that sector.
“But on the haulage side, yes, many more companies are opting for third party logistics and those that are there have seen the danger in using old trucks that will fail them and their goods will be endangered and the issue of demurrage and insurance will be there. So, you can see that there is beginning to be a change in terms of acquisition of articulated vehicles, maybe because of what NPA as threatened to do alongside the Federal Road Safety Commission in terms of banning certain vehicles from getting closer to the ports.
“So, those who are acquiring now are trying to acquire even if they may be more expensive but the ones that are more durable and ones that can stand the test of time and give them quality service before they start breaking down again.
“However, the haulage sector is still not very vibrant looking at the port situation and the access road. That has killed any new initiative in that sector and because of that, even though there would have been measurable increase in terms of output but the inflation rate is still there because the waiting time of these trucks and the demurrage and all that will ultimately transferred to the final user and that has increased the unit cost of commodities and inflation rate has stabilized at that level. So, not having good access road to the port has also affected the expected growth in terms of the road arm of the logistics and transport sector”.
The Executive Director observed that the case was the same with the maritime sector where access to the ports to send or pick containers was still a major problem adding that the maritime sector had also not fared very well because of the increasing demurrage and dwell time of ships where demurrages were to be paid.
In his words,” Maybe the initial burden of demurrage will be taken by the ship owner but then it will eventually be transferred to the shipper. Security risks in terms of piracy, we saw an increase in the beginning of the year and that has also sent some fears in the sector, although it has stabilized now and confidence is being restored”.
On the railway sector, Ndibe pointed out that the government had been known to consistently inject funds to the railways but was quick to add that their unit contribution had not been felt as the injection of funds according to him had been towards laying of new railway lines which might not translate into any measurable contribution to the economic growth now as no single meter of rail line had been added.
“Therefore, the effect will not be felt. Yes, there is injection of funds but maybe into procurement of track materials which will not initially translate to any expected impact that we are expecting from the rail sector. Even on the passengers’ side, the volume of passengers has dropped because their once in a week performance has not been consistent because of the absence of the rolling stocks.
“And even the assistance they were giving to even pick containers from the ports to Ebute-Meta or Kajola has slowed down because of poor hauling capacity of their locomotives. So, railway has not also fared well despite the injection funds though the funds are not for current operation but for future operation. So, having said that, the transport sector in the first quarter, I should say, generally has not seen impressive growth”, he concluded.
Photo” National Executive Director CILT Nigeria, Mr. Paul Ndibe.
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