Logistics Security in Nigeria: Mapping Risks and Mitigation Practices Across Maritime, Road, and Energy Supply Chains (2011-2026)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18911272Keywords:
logistics security, supply chain risk, maritime piracy, highway insecurity, pipeline vandalism, scoping reviewAbstract
Logistics is a key tool for economic engagement and social sustainability, but in the Nigerian context, the flow of goods and people is constantly impacted by insecurity along ports, roads, and energy corridors. This paper integrates peer-reviewed literature on logistics security in Nigeria and Gulf of Guinea maritime routes, focusing on the translation of threats into operational impacts and the reported workable practices for mitigation. A scoping review methodology was used, and thirty sources were purposively sampled from 2011 to 2026 in logistics, transport security, maritime research, and risk management journals. The results of the synthesis show that maritime piracy and port security risks are still the most prominent in the literature, but highway kidnapping and corridor insecurity are increasingly reported as mobility shocks that undermine travel assurance, cause route deviations, and increase cost-to-serve. Energy supply chain risks, such as pipeline vandalism and oil theft, are constantly associated with environmental damage, safety events, and governance failures. In all areas, three sets of mitigation practices are consistently reported: (i) legal and institutional capacity building with interagency cooperation, (ii) visibility and surveillance technologies with intelligence sharing, and (iii) operational risk management practices by companies such as regular risk analysis, event reporting, and stakeholder relationship management. The paper presents an integrated framework that links threats, points of exposure, impacts, and performance outcomes, and proposes a research and policy agenda that could help improve the security and reliability of logistics in Nigeria
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