BERTH OCCUPANCY RATE PERFORMANCE OF NIGERIAN EASTERN PORTS

Abstract

The study analyzed the differences in berth occupancy rate among Nigerian Eastern Ports that includes Onne, Rivers, Calabar and Warri ports. Due to the under/over utilization of berthing spaces available at the Eastern Nigerian Ports over time, secondary data were obtained from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to help elicit information on the berth occupancy rates performance among the Nigeria Eastern Ports from 2018 to 2022. Descriptive analysis used in the study revealed that the berth occupancy rate differs among Nigerian Eastern ports, recording 10.5% for Delta port; 38.2% for Rivers port, 26% and 25.3% for Onne and Calabar ports respectively. A one-way Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) was used to test the differences in berth occupancy rates performance. Findings revealed that the berths are all under-utilized among the ports and also there is a
statistically significant difference in berth occupancy rate among Nigeria Eastern seaports, with F value of 9.797 and P value at 0.001. The study concluded that Rivers recorded best berth utilization rate among the Nigerian Eastern Ports with 55.8% while Onne with 37.8%, Calabar 37% and Delta with 15.4% were under-utilized. It is recommended among others that West Africa Container Terminal (WACT) at Onne port should be provided with more berthing space to reduce congestion at the terminal by port management and also should provide the necessary means to dredge the ports channels, especially for Delta and Calabar ports, so that bigger vessels can navigate to the port so as to engage the berth.