FG moves to expands export air corridor to East, Southern Africa to ease logistics burden

The federal government has expanded Nigeria’s air cargo export corridor across East and Southern Africa in a move aimed at reducing freight costs and boosting intra-African trade.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, announced the development on Tuesday in a video shared on X, saying the initiative was designed to address long-standing logistical barriers facing Nigerian exporters.

According to her, the high cost of freight has remained a major constraint to trade competitiveness across the continent.

“This corridor is a response to a real problem,” she said.

Oduwole explained that while Nigerian businesses have the capacity to supply African markets, prohibitive logistics costs have limited their reach.

“Nigerian businesses were ready to sell to Africa, but the cost of moving their goods was prohibitive,” she said.

She noted that cargo rates previously ranged between $3 and $10 per kilogram, a level she described as unsustainable for intra-African trade, adding that such costs often rendered Nigerian goods uncompetitive upon arrival in destination markets.

“By the time those products arrived at their destination, they could no longer compete on price,” she said.

The minister also said high freight costs had pushed some exporters into informal and risky cross-border trade channels in a bid to reduce expenses.