Nigeria's slow progress in developing an interconnected multimodal logistics transport system is hampering economic growth, with experts citing lack of seamless connections, poor regulatory environment, and corruption as key challenges. OLUSEGUN KOIKI and BENJAMIN ALADE report.
Transportation and logistics are fundamental to any modern economy. The efficiency of logistics systems directly affects the cost of goods and services, from moving farm products to urban markets to transporting imported raw materials via roads, airports, and seaports to factories. Efficient multimodal systems reduce transportation time, lower operational costs, and improve trade competitiveness. Developed economies have successfully integrated ports, airports, rail lines, and highways into coordinated logistics ecosystems that support industrial growth and reduce the cost of moving goods.
Data from the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the country's freight and logistics market was valued at $10.95 billion in 2025, contributing about 3.5% to the gross domestic product (GDP) through transportation, warehousing, freight forwarding, storage, and courier services. However, persistent inefficiency in multimodal transportation continues to inflate commodity prices, increase business operational costs, and weaken economic competitiveness.
Despite Nigeria's leading economic position in Africa and its status as the continent's biggest consumer market, major logistics bottlenecks slow trade, disrupt supply chains, and contribute significantly to inflation. Industry experts warn that without urgent reforms across road, rail, maritime, and aviation sectors, the country may face rising living costs and declining productivity.
Poor Infrastructure and Multiple Taxation
The Managing Director of Flights and Logistics Solution Limited, Amos Akpan, in an interview with The Guardian, identified poor infrastructure, multiple taxation, corruption, and lack of coordination among transport modes as major factors crippling the multimodal transportation and logistics sector. He stated that these issues have driven up the cost of goods and services nationwide.
Akpan explained that multimodal transportation involves the seamless movement of goods and persons through a combination of road, rail, air, and waterways, but Nigeria lacks an organized and integrated system to support such operations. Logistics operators are forced to improvise by combining available transport modes based on terrain and destination accessibility.
For instance, transporting vaccines to riverine communities often requires moving cargo by air to the nearest airport, then by road to a riverside, and finally by boat to the final destination. The absence of integrated infrastructure makes logistics operations cumbersome and expensive. Akpan noted that rail lines linking farming communities to export processing terminals at airports would significantly improve cargo movement.
The logistics expert lamented that the operating environment in Nigeria is designed against the survival of logistics businesses, particularly due to excessive levies and extortion by security agencies. Transporting agricultural produce such as yams from Nasarawa to Lagos or plantains from Obudu to Port Harcourt attracts substantial unofficial payments at security checkpoints, sometimes exceeding the goods' actual value.
Akpan decried the multiplicity of taxes and permits imposed on logistics operators within cities, revealing that a delivery van operating in major cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt requires as many as 48 different documents to ply the roads legally. Poor coordination among neighboring states worsens the burden on operators.
He also criticized the use of inappropriate vehicles for transporting perishables and pharmaceutical products, noting that most temperature-sensitive goods are still transported in ordinary trucks meant for hardware and general cargo. Akpan posited that inefficiencies, corruption, and high operating costs have combined to make Nigeria's logistics sector uncompetitive relative to global standards.
Akpan called for massive investment in transportation infrastructure, harmonization of regulations across states, reduction of multiple levies, and improved coordination across transport modes to improve intermodal logistics.
Weak Regulatory Systems and Transhipment Bottlenecks
Rail transport consultant Rowland Ataguba, also Managing Director of Bethlehem Rail Infrastructure Ltd, London, United Kingdom, told The Guardian that poor handling practices, inadequate infrastructure, and weak regulatory systems are major factors confronting multimodal transportation and logistics operations in Nigeria. He noted that transportation is a major enabler of economic development.
Ataguba explained that multimodal transportation seeks to combine the most suitable transport modes to efficiently move people and goods, but operational inefficiencies at transfer points create significant bottlenecks. Transhipment points, where goods are transferred from one mode to another, often become chokepoints that can disrupt entire supply chains.
He said: “Whereas each mode comes with its own unique challenges, a main challenge arises at the interfaces where transfers from one mode to another occur. These are generally known as transhipment points and can become bottlenecks or chokepoints, potentially triggering a domino effect on supply chains. Other inefficiencies can arise from poor handling or poor-quality infrastructure leading to damaged goods, which can cause artificial scarcities with the attendant inflationary impacts.”
These issues frequently result in damaged goods, artificial scarcity, and inflationary pressures. Ataguba also blamed weak regulatory frameworks for worsening supply chain disruptions, warning that poor oversight could trigger wider economic consequences.
On the economic impact, Ataguba said that delays, losses, and operational struggles significantly increase the cost of transporting goods and services. The additional costs incurred by shippers are ultimately passed on to consumers through higher prices. He emphasized that transporting a container from Guangdong in China to Apapa Port in Lagos can sometimes be cheaper than moving the same container from Apapa to Kwali in Abuja.
He maintained that improving transportation and logistics infrastructure, alongside better coordination among transport modes, would deliver substantial economic benefits by reducing delays and operational waste, lowering costs, improving productivity, and enhancing supply chain predictability, thereby encouraging specialization and strengthening comparative economic advantages.
Fragmented Approach and Informal Sector
Associate Professor of Marketing at Keele University, United Kingdom, Emmanuel Mogaji, said one of the major bottlenecks is the limited understanding of transport as a connected service ecosystem rather than isolated modes of movement. Road transport operators, rail agencies, port authorities, logistics firms, and government regulators often work independently, with minimal coordination or integration.
This fragmented approach reduces efficiency, increases delays, and limits seamless movement of goods and passengers across transport modes. The challenge is compounded by the highly informal nature of Nigeria's transport sector, where individual operators and organizations develop their own systems without strong incentives for collaboration or shared planning.
Mogaji added: “Inefficiencies in transportation and logistics significantly increase the overall cost of goods and services in Nigeria because businesses and consumers are forced to absorb multiple layers of costs across fragmented transport systems. At different stages of the supply chain, there are numerous stakeholders, operators, checkpoints, intermediaries, and informal charges that contribute to delays, duplication of effort, and higher operating expenses.”
He further stated that bureaucratic bottlenecks, weak infrastructure integration, inconsistent regulations, and poor coordination between transport modes increase costs, which are ultimately passed on to consumers through higher prices.
Overdependence on Road Transport
Professor of transport planning and policy at Lagos State University, Samuel Odewumi, said Nigeria's multimodal transportation system is constrained by infrastructure, institutional, operational, and policy-related challenges. One of the most critical bottlenecks is the overdependence on road transport for both passenger and freight movement. He emphasized that 80% of cargo movement in the country is still road-based, placing enormous pressure on highways that are already in poor condition.
“Another major challenge is the weak integration among transport modes. Ideally, ports, railways, inland waterways, airports, and road networks should operate as a connected logistics chain. However, in Nigeria, these systems largely function in isolation. Rail links to major seaports remain inadequate, inland dry ports are underutilized, and water transport infrastructure is still poorly developed,” he added.
Odewumi, who doubles as the acting Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, said improving transportation and logistics infrastructure would have transformative economic benefits for Nigeria.
