Seaport Cost and Time Reduction Strategies for Enhancing Nigerian Healthcare Manufacturing Performance

Abstract

The study explores cost and time reduction strategies for Nigerian healthcare manufacturing organizations to enhance business performance by minimizing seaport clearance costs, clearance time, hinterland transport costs, and hinterland distance. The paper utilized both primary and secondary data, obtaining primary data through a questionnaire survey and secondary data from the annual reports of the sampled firms. The paper’s population consists of 10 manufacturing firms purposefully selected from listed companies between 2010 and 2019, and which regularly importing goods via Lagos Seaports. The regression analysis revealed a strong positive association between seaport clearance cost, clearance time, hinterland transport cost and hinterland distance and healthcare manufacturing profits, accounting for 62.7% of the total variation in these organizations.The standardized regression coefficients further indicates that only clearance time has negative effect (𝛽 = −0.346) on profits, while clearance cost, hinterland transport cost and hinterland distance all have positive effects (𝛽 = 0.527,𝛽 = 0.024 & 𝛽 = 0.380, respectively) on profits. The study suggests that reducing seaport clearance times can enhance the performance of the Nigerian healthcare sector. The strategy should concentrate on reducing seaport clearance time to enhance manufacturing performance. The Federal Government should integrate technology into seaport operations to streamline customs processes, while healthcare manufacturers should develop business plans to reduce seaport clearance time's negative impact on profits.