Productivity and Efficiency of Nigeria s Seaports: A Production Frontier Analysis

Productivity and efficiency are key expectation of every production decision. Estimation of a port s production frontier is therefore critical in the assessment of port s productivity and efficiency. In this study, the production function of Nigeria s seaport is modeled using the stochastic frontier framework. Panel data analyzed consists of records on eight coastal ports with details on output and multiple input variables covering a period of 22 years. The analysis reveals that total factor productivity of the ports averages >2.5 million tons annum-1 and three of them operate below frontier. In addition, capital inputs variables are found to significantly contribute to port productivity while labour input variable which represents manual cargo handling effort in the ports is found statistically insignificant. Thus, total mechanization of cargo handling operation, especially in developing and transition countries ports to boost port infrastructure productivity and efficiency is again supported in the Nigeria s case.