International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VII, July 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186
Influence of Government Policy on Law for Sustainability of Dry Ports in Nigeria
Godson Okpara1, and Hope Okpara, Esq2
1PhD Scholar in Maritime Transport, Post Graduate School, Department of Maritime Science, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
2Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Abstract: The study examined the influence of government policy/law on sustainability of dry ports in Nigeria. The target population of the study consisted of all the key facilitators and supportive personnel of the eleven functional, non-functional and proposed dry ports in Nigeria. A sample of 222 facilitators and supportive personnel selected from 6 geopolitical zones participated in the study. The hypotheses were tested through the help of SPSS 22.0 and the use of inferential statistical tools of Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (r). The study found that understanding and managing hinterland roads and rails play a significant role in enhancing sustainability of dry ports. The study concludes that both government policy and legal framework are positively and significantly related to the optimization of dry ports. In addition, government policy and legal framework have positive and significant relationship with the growth of dry ports. Therefore, the study recommends that government should come up with effective legal framework and policies on dry port operations in Nigeria as there are no such instruments to navigate effective and sustainable operations of dry ports in Nigeria. There should be a sustained port access maintenance programme in Nigeria.
Keywords: Government Policy, Legal Framework, Sustainability, Dry Ports, Optimization
I.INTRODUCTION
Dry ports are commonly defined as inland terminals that have strong connections to gateway seaports by high capacity and frequent transport services. Within a supply chain setting, dry ports might work as extensions of seaports or inland hubs to facilitate the movement of cargo between seaports and the hinterland (Khaslavskaya & Roso, 2019). In advanced economies, such as North America or Europe, seaport authority and operators are the main drivers of dry port development with the purpose of solving the problems of limited capacity, natural constraints and externalities at seaports or improving hinterland access particularly for import cargoes (Talley & Ng, 2017).
In contrast, dry ports in developing economies are naturally land-driven, established for consolidating (export) cargoes from regional economic zones and forwarding them to gateway seaports. In developing economies, dry port development is accelerating to improve the inland logistics efficiency (Khaslavskaya & Roso, 2019). One of the imperative issues of dry port development in developing economies is location planning. While the minimization of set up costs and total logistics costs are key factors in dry port location analysis, there are also other more qualitative location