Finally, a solution to Apapa road?

The story of Apapa in the last 24-36 months when it came into its present siege has been that of economic loss, business failure and health risk. Long hours on traffic that is not only choking but also life-threatening have led to loss of quality man-hour on the road, poor mental health of workers, poor and delayed output, low productive capacity and almost zero competitiveness of products.

Indeed, noting could be more embarrassing than the Federal and Lagos State Governments’ neglect of the roads infrastructure in Apapa from where they rake in hundreds of billions of naira revenue annually. The Federal Government has very strong presence at the two ports with its revenue-collecting agencies which collect money for it in form of import duties and levies by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS); royalties, rents and dues by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA); dues and levies by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA); certification levies by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), among others. Report has it that in 2016, NCS alone generated N898 billion as revenue for the Federal Government, and this was even less than the N904 billion collected in 2015. The reduction, according to a close source at the NCS, was because of the difficulty in accessing foreign exchange and removal of the 41 items which forced down the level of activities within the ports. The target given to the service was indeed N937 billion in 2016 and it would have surpassed that if the business environment had been favourable.

It is estimated that on weekly basis, the Nigerian economy loses close to N140 billion which translates to N20 billion daily loss because of the situation in Apapa. The explanation is very simple. Apapa is home to Nigeria’s two busiest seaports which account for over 80 percent of all import and export activities in the country. The two major routes to these ports – Apapa-Oshodi Expressway and Apapa-Wharf Road – are simply shameful and embarrassing. Apapa-Oshodi Expressway particularly is a messy metaphor for tedium, drudgery, pain, waste, and suffering of monumental proportion. “Apapa-Wharf Road is both an embarrassment to the country and a huge loss of close to N140 billion to the government on a weekly basis; the economy loses more than N20 billion daily because the state of this road affects businesses across the country. And as revealed by Aliko Dangote, president, Dangote Group at a media parley in Lagos recently, all the group’s operations in the hinterland in Ilorin, Kano, etc are operating at 40 percent maximum capacity as a result.

Estimates show the Apapa-Wharf road will cost N4.34 billion while the rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oshodi Expressway is estimated to cost N100 billion. So, altogether, the two major routes require just N104.3 billion to make them motorable. It beats the imagination, therefore, that the Federal Government is finding it difficult to put those two routes in good shape even with the huge revenue it raked from the ports in 2016 alone can repair the roads 10 times over if the will to do so is there. This is a simple but sad case of the Federal and Lagos State Governments dancing on the graves of residents and businesses in Apapa, the hen that lays golden eggs for them.

Perhaps, the embarrassment and hindrance to businesses prompted the intervention of the private sector, particularly, the Dangote Group, Flour Mill Nigeria and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to comprehensively reconstruct the Apapa-Wharf road. The cost of the project is put at N4.34 billion. It is said the NPA will provide N1.8 billion while Dangote Group and Flour Mills would provide N2.5 billion.The 2km road project, which is to be handled by AG Dangote, the construction arm of the Dangote Group, is billed to last one year.

We commend this private sector intervention. But we urge the government to immediately prioritise the reconstruction of the Apapa-Oshodi expressway to make it motorable, relieve the sufferings of those living along the axis and improve the ease of doing business.
 Editorial