A report by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has shown that no fewer than 870,978,743.41kg of cargo passed through Nigerian airports, especially the international terminals in the last five years.
The report, which gave the figures as import and export, indicates that the cargo traffic was between 2017 and 2021.
The report further shows a massive gap between imports and export, indicating that the country engages in more imports than exports.
More details
For import cargo, Nigeria had 718,583,977.64kg, while the figure for exports stood at 152,394,765.83kg, showing a difference of 566,189,211.17kg. The data showed that in 2017, Nigeria had total cargo traffic of 168,706,874kg with 110,855,606kg for import and 57,851,268.06kg for export.
In 2018, Nigeria had 164,938,399.43kg cargo, which indicates 139,334,931.11kg for import and 25,603,468.32kg for exports. This, however, showed a decline of 2.23% when compared to 2017.
For 2019 cargo traffic, Nigeria recorded 172,048,640.15kg, representing 148,269,601.75kg for import and 172,048,640.15kg and a boost of 4.31 per cent compared with 2018.
In the 2020 figure, Nigeria had a total of 147,470,437.88kg of cargo traffic. Specifically, the country recorded 131,376,073.02kg of import and 16,094,364.86kg of export cargo, indicating a boost of 14.29% when compared to the 2019 cargo movement.
However, unlike the 2020 figures for passenger and aircraft movements where the country recorded low statistics because of the Covid-19 pandemic, cargo statistics were different as Nigeria used the period to import vaccines and agricultural produce for its citizenry.
Besides, for 2021, Nigeria had a total of 217,814,391.95kg cargo traffic, which indicated 188,747,765.76kg for import and 29,066,626.19kg as export. Also, the figure showed a boost of 47.70% when compared with the 2020 figure.
Mail traffic for 5yrs
On mail traffic through the airport within the five years under review, at least 260,561,935.93kg of mail were either imported or exported with importation far outweighing the exportation.
The breakdown shows that in 2017, the number of imports stood at 30,002,394kg, while import was 9,017,201kg, totalling 39,019,595kg.
For 2018, the total number of cargo traffic was 47,318,518.13kg; import – was 27,806,505.37kg, and export was 19,512,012.76kg, indicating a 22.27% increase when compared to the same period in 2017.
Also, for the 2019 figure, the total number of imports was 50,150,647.52kg and export was 5,475,260.54kg, totaling 55,625,908.06kg. The figure also showed a 17.56 improvement when compared with the 2018 figure.
However, in 2020 there was a massive in mail traffic recorded, sliding 19.84% when compared to the 2019 figure.
The year (2020) had a total of 44,587,736.33kg of mail traffic, divided into 40,496,187.13kg for import, while export stood at just 4,091,549.20kg.
The past year had total mail traffic of 74,010,178.41kg, making it the highest mail traffic in half a decade in the country. The figure also showed a rise of 65.99% to the previous year.
For importation, the statistics recorded 69,232,559.41kg, while export was merely 4,777,619kg.
Addressing the gap
Dr Alex Nwuba, the President of the Aircraft Owners Association of Nigeria (AOAN), said that the imbalance between cargo import and export could only be addressed through an improved agricultural system. Speaking to Nairametrics, he observed that recent events of terrorism and climate change have further reduced the export potential of Nigeria.
He explained that Nigeria is still much of an import-dependent economy, regretting that every form of produce is imported into the country. He said:
- “Everything comes into this country; things we can produce. The aviation industry is not devoid of the economy. Aviation is part of the Nigerian economy and when the country functions in a particular way that is how the industry will function.
- “Our capacity to produce what we export is a challenge and the situation must be raised above the level of exporting raw materials, we are now talking of agricultural products for example. We should be thinking of more industries. That conversation of exporting tomatoes, oranges, pineapple, and fish must change.
- “Otherwise, we will export it for 10% of its value, buy the finished product at huge premiums and we will not solve the problem, we will go around it in circles and we must deal with the economic intentions of the society.”
