Comparative Analysis of Port Efficiency in ECOWAS: Case Studies of Major Ports

The efficiency of ports in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) plays a crucial role in enhancing regional trade corridors and economic integration. However, persistent infrastructural limitations, congestion, and inefficiencies in port operations have hampered their ability to compete globally. This study conducts a comparative efficiency analysis of four major ECOWAS ports—Abidjan, Tema, Lagos, and Lomé—using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to measure technical and scale efficiency from 2011 to 2024. Additionally, a SWOT analysis is employed to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats affecting these ports. The analysis reveals that the Port of Lomé demonstrates the highest efficiency, consistently achieving Charnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) and Banker, Charnes, and Cooper (BCC) efficiency scores of 1.0 by 2024. This superior performance is attributed to its strategic role as a transshipment hub, extensive infrastructure investments, and operational improvements. The Port of Lagos, despite maintaining high technical efficiency (BCC = 1.0), experiences fluctuations in CCR scale efficiency due to congestion and operational constraints. The Port of Abidjan shows steady improvement, benefiting from infrastructure expansion, but remains constrained by its reliance on the Vridi Canal. In contrast, the Port of Tema ranks the lowest in efficiency, facing persistent scale inefficiencies and infrastructure limitations that hinder its operational performance. This study highlights the crucial role of infrastructure investment, digitalization, and trade facilitation reforms in improving port efficiency. Policy recommendations include automation of port operations, expansion of multimodal transport linkages, and stronger public-private partnerships (PPPs) to optimize performance and enhance regional connectivity. By contributing a longitudinal DEA-based efficiency assessment, this research adds to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence on efficiency trends in ECOWAS ports and offering strategic insights for policymakers, port authorities, and trade stakeholders.