By Ime Silas
When the Uyo Port Officer of the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency, NPERA, Mrs. Molly Asanga, mounted the podium to deliver her keynote address on streamlining port logistics, maritime transport and freight optimisation to boost agro-exports under the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, she was not just speaking about ships and cargoes.
She was speaking at the 5th International Agribusiness Roundtable Conference held in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State between 25th and 28th October, 2026, about a fundamental test for Nigeria: whether Africa’s largest economy can convert its agricultural abundance into competitive, value-adding exports, or whether it will remain a big producer that struggles to sell to its own neighbours.
That framing is the most important takeaway from the address. Mrs. Asanga insisted that the conversation “is more than a discussion about ports, ships, cargoes and freight charges.” It is, in her words, about “Nigeria’s productive capacity, the prosperity of our farmers, the competitiveness of our exporters, the strength of our regional trade relationships, and our ability to convert agricultural abundance into sustainable economic value.”
In other words, ports are no longer to be seen merely as points of entry and exit. They must become “strategic engines of production, value addition, regional connectivity and export-led development.”
The Opportunity Is Huge, But Not Automatic
Mrs. Asanga laid out the scale of the prize with striking figures. Citing the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa’s 2025 regional integration report, she noted that AfCFTA represents a market of approximately 1.4 billion people with a combined nominal GDP of about US$3 trillion. Nigeria alone, according to World Bank 2025 figures she quoted, has about 237.5 million people and a GDP of US$290.8 billion.
For Nigeria’s cocoa, sesame, cashew, ginger, hibiscus, soybeans, palm products, shea and other commodities, that is a ready continental market.
But the keynote was careful not to confuse opportunity with outcome. Asanga warned: “Access to a large market does not automatically produce export growth. Our products must satisfy buyer specifications and move at predictable cost and speed.”
That is the central tension in Nigeria’s AfCFTA story. The agreement, which commenced trading in January 2021 and seeks under the African Union’s Agenda 2063 to create a progressively liberalised single market, reduce tariffs and non-tariff barriers, and promote industrialisation and regional value chains, opens doors. It does not guarantee that Nigerian goods will walk through them.
Where The Real Bottlenecks Are
The analysis in the address locates the problem not in the farm, but in the long, expensive journey from farm to ship.
For agricultural exporters, Asanga noted, port inefficiency is even more punishing than for other traders. Commodities face strict requirements on quality, moisture content, contamination, packaging, temperature, traceability and delivery schedules. Delays and poor handling can mean deterioration, rejected consignments, extra storage charges and outright financial losses. For perishable goods, the consequences can be severe.
The cost problem is even broader. Freight cost, she argued, is not just the ocean freight rate. It includes inland transportation, cargo handling, terminal charges, warehousing, packaging, documentation, inspections, insurance, equipment positioning, container detention, demurrage and other charges. “When these costs accumulate, even a productive and efficient farmer may find it difficult to compete with suppliers from other countries,” she said.
This is where NPERA’s new role becomes critical. The agency, which transitioned from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, is not, as Asanga clarified, meant to administer customs, operate ports or certify agricultural exports. Its statutory purpose is economic regulation: to ensure that costs and charges across every stage of the port value chain are “fair, reasonable, transparent, and commensurate with the quality and efficiency of services provided.”
In practical terms, that means six things: oversight of tariffs and charges, monitoring service quality and handling timelines, examining complaints on disputed charges and demurrage, identifying unfair or anticompetitive conduct in collaboration with the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, developing intelligence on dwell time and logistics costs, and engaging stakeholders to remove economic bottlenecks.
That is a significant clarification for exporters who have long complained about unpredictable charges and poor redress mechanisms.
Digitalization, Corridors And The Single Window
Two practical solutions dominated the keynote: digitalization and corridor thinking.
On digitalization, Asanga welcomed the Federal Government’s National Single Window, which will allow trade documents to be submitted at a single entry point, reducing clearance time and duplication. But she added an important caveat: digital platforms must be interoperable, secure and accessible, and must be matched by clear service timelines, reliable infrastructure and user support. “Otherwise paperwork merely becomes a digital bottleneck,” she warned.
That warning matters. Nigeria has seen several attempts at port automation that digitized old inefficiencies rather than removing them. The test of the Single Window will not be its launch, but whether it actually eliminates duplicated information requests and improves pre-arrival documentation and risk-based controls.
On corridors, Asanga proposed an Integrated Agro-Export Logistics Corridor Framework built around production clusters and commodity-specific needs. Cocoa and cashew may need coordinated warehousing, grading and container consolidation. Sesame and ginger may need specialized cleaning, moisture management, testing and packaging. Fresh fruits and vegetables may need pre-cooling, refrigerated transport, cold storage and reliable reefer connections at the port.
This commodity-specific approach is a departure from one-size-fits-all port reforms. It recognizes that what works for sesame in Jigawa will not work for fresh vegetables bound for Ghana or Cameroon.
The Unfinished Business: Standards, Finance And Value Addition
Perhaps the most sobering part of the analysis was on standards and value. Asanga was blunt: “Faster port processes cannot compensate for a rejected shipment.” Producers, inspection agencies, exporters and research institutions must strengthen testing, certification, post-harvest handling and compliance with sanitary and phytosanitary rules, labelling, traceability and AfCFTA rules of origin.
She also pushed for Nigeria to retain more value at home by processing cocoa, cashew, ginger and sesame domestically where commercially feasible. “The desired outcome is not merely more tonnes shipped but greater export value per shipment, reliable fulfilment of contracts and stronger Nigerian brands.”
That connects directly to financing. Warehouses, cold-chain facilities, terminals, testing laboratories and digital platforms all require capital. Asanga argued that public resources alone cannot meet the need, and called for predictable regulation, transparent commercial arrangements and public-private partnerships where there is a clear commercial case. She also flagged the working capital gap for small and medium exporters who may have a buyer and a competitive product but cannot finance packaging, transport and storage before payment.
What To Watch Next
The keynote offered a phased roadmap: in the immediate phase, map export journeys, document duplicated procedures, publish service and charge information, and create complaint channels; in the medium term, strengthen digital processes, aggregation centres and cold-chain capacity; in the longer term, support commercially justified corridors, multimodal connectivity and reliable intra-African shipping links.
For stakeholders in Akwa Ibom and the wider South-South, the question now is implementation. Who will own each reform? What baselines will be published? And will NPERA’s Uyo office become a real point of redress for exporters, or just another layer of bureaucracy?
Mrs. Asanga’s closing line captures the ambition: “Let our ports become reliable gateways through which Nigerian products reach African markets on time, at competitive cost and with greater value retained at home.”
If that happens, AfCFTA will be more than a treaty for Nigeria. It will be a livelihood for its farmers.