APM Terminals claims contributing N186b to Nigeria’s economy yearly in a report
Whereas a new report by a Denmark-based consulting firm, Quantifying Business Impacts on Society (QBIS) has claimed that the operation of APM Terminals in Nigeria created a total turnover of around $610 million (N186.05 billion) per year to the nation’s between 2013 and 2016, efforts to confirm the figures at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), has proved abortive.
An official of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) who pleaded anonymity could not comment on the claims, but agreed that terminal operators had been a strong backbone in the development of the nation’s aviation sector.
The official hinted that “Very soon, the Authority will effect a review of the terminal concession agreements to correct a lot of loopholes which the operators had been relying upon to ripmoff governments.
It would be recalled that some of the terminal concession deals had expired but there had been very slow process of reviewing them.
One of the key promises of the new administration at NPA in 2016 was the review of the entire concession, however, that has not been done.
According to the Danish report titled “Nigerian Trade Stimulator – How APM Terminals in Nigeria have impacted trade, creating jobs and ensuring a sustainable business environment”, its main objective, according to Olisen and Westergaard-Kabelmann, was to assess the socio-economic impacts and value-addition of APM Terminals’ operations in Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy. The study focused on APM Terminals’ investments in Nigeria from 2010 to 2016.
The authors averred that “the study finds that the direct turnover created by APM Terminals from 2013 to 2016 has created around $44 million (N13.42 billion) of annual turnover in companies supplying goods and services to APM Terminals and around $352 million (N107.36 billion) of annual turnover in companies supplying consumption goods to the employees of APM Terminals and its suppliers.
“This means that APM Terminals’ business activities have created a total turnover of around $610 million ((N186.05 billion) per year to the Nigerian economy in the period from 2013 to 2016.”
The study also stated that APM Terminals has supported about 35,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs per year in Nigeria from 2013 to 2016.“In the period 2013 to 2016, APM Terminals employed an average of 1,196 FTEs (full time employees) per year. In the same period, APM Terminals further supported another nearly 4,800 jobs per year in the companies supplying goods and services to APM Terminals and another around 29,000 jobs per year when the people hired by APM Terminals or its suppliers spend their salaries on private consumption,” the report further stated.
Besides, the report observed that the operation of APM Terminals has impacted positively on trade in Nigeria, leading to an increase of the country’s manufactured export by up to a 15 per cent corresponding to around $0.5 billion (N152.5 billion) in the period from 2006 to 2009.The report indicates increasing Foreign Direct Investment impact in the country and increased non-oil exports, in line with the ambition of the Federal Government.
The study claimed further that “With these increases in production come increases in number of jobs and salaries which in turn increases households’ income and leads to increased private consumption.“This increased private consumption leads to a further increase in demand from the sectors delivering goods and services for private consumption, which in turn again increase employment and salaries and so forth, also referred to as induced effects”.
