Blue Economy
PARTNERS ON THE WATER: Maritime Workers’ Unions and the Battle to Develop Nigeria’s Inland Waterways Sector
PARTNERS ON THE WATER:Maritime Workers’ Unions and the Battle to Develop Nigeria’s Inland Waterways Sector
By the Nigerian Waterways News Special Investigations Desk, Lagos | February 20, 2026
Nigeria’s inland waterways span more than 10,000 kilometers of rivers, creeks, and channels, connecting 28 of the country’s 36 states. They represent one of the most underutilized transport assets on the African continent. And as the Federal Government, through its newly established Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, pushes to unlock that potential, the Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) — the country’s principal labour organization in the sector — has been working from multiple angles to shape, support, and at times challenge that effort.
This is a report about what that engagement looks like in practice: from wage negotiations and safety advocacy to partnerships with regulators and the challenge of absorbing a workforce that, for the most part, has never held a formal contract.
The Union and Its Sector
The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria was formed in 1996, when the Federal Government merged four separate maritime labour organizations into a single industrial union.
Affiliated to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), MWUN represents sailors, dockworkers, ferry operators, and port support staff across the country’s seaports and inland waterway terminals.
In March 2025, the union held its 6th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference at Festac Town, Lagos, at which Comrade Francis Abi Bunu was elected President-General, unopposed. Bunu succeeded Comrade Adewale Adeyanju, who had led the union for eight years. The election was notably the first time in MWUN’s 29-year history that a president-general had come from the Seafarers Branch of the union.
Bunu’s background is directly relevant to the inland waterways discussion. Before his election, he served as President of the Seamen/NIWA and Water Transportation Branch of MWUN — the branch that deals specifically with river and inland waterway workers. His ascent to the presidency was welcomed by the Barge Operators Association of Nigeria (BOAN), which had recently initiated a formal collaboration with MWUN to improve operations and strengthen engagement with government regulators, including NIWA and NIMASA.
The Scale of the Safety Crisis
Any honest discussion of MWUN’s role in developing Nigeria’s waterways must begin with the body count. Boat accidents on Nigeria’s inland waterways kill hundreds of people every year, and the data — such as it is — tells a grim story.According to the Marine Crafts Builders Association of Nigeria (MCBAN), the average annual death toll from boat accidents in 2021 and 2022 was approximately 330. In 2023, over 300 lives were lost, with Kwara and Anambra states recording the highest casualties, according to a report by The Cable.
The 2024 figures were no better: at least 326 confirmed deaths, an increase of 8.67 percent over 2023, according to The Cable’s count, with Niger and Kwara states leading casualties. Some accounts put the 2024 toll as high as 452, reflecting the difficulty of consistent data collection across remote riverine communities.
Among the most devastating single incidents in recent memory was the October 3, 2024, capsizing of a wooden dugout canoe on the River Niger — carrying an estimated 300 passengers — which resulted in nearly 200 deaths. A second major incident followed on November 29, 2024, on the Dambo-Ebuchi waterways in Kogi State, where a vessel with over 160 passengers capsized, killing approximately 54 and leaving an unknown number unaccounted for.
The root causes have been extensively documented: overloaded and poorly maintained wooden vessels, absent life jackets, unlicensed operators, no mandatory passenger manifests, night sailing on unmarked waterways, and chronic under-enforcement by regulatory agencies.
As the Independent Newspaper reported in October 2025, experts in the sector have consistently noted that NIWA, Marine Police, and State Waterways Authorities often operate in silos, with enforcement that is reactive rather than preventive.
MWUN’s Advocacy on Vessel Safety
MWUN has been publicly vocal on the need to modernise Nigeria’s waterway fleet. When Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Adegboyega Oyetola intensified his campaign in 2025 for state governments to phase out wooden commercial boats in favour of safer fibre-reinforced plastic and aluminium vessels, MWUN President-General Francis Bunu publicly endorsed the position. According to a press release published on the union’s official website, Bunu specifically lauded Oyetola’s stance on phasing out wooden boats as a necessary step toward curbing incessant waterways accidents.
“The safety of our citizens on water is not just a policy responsibility, it is a moral duty.” — Minister Adegboyega Oyetola, presenting the report of the Special Committee on the Prevention of Boat Mishaps, 2025
The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy established a 16-member Special Committee on the Prevention of Boat Mishaps in February 2025, chaired by NIWA Managing Director Bola Oyebamiji. The committee’s recommendations fed into ongoing efforts to enforce the Inland Waterways Transportation Regulations 2023 — the Water Transportation Code — which was launched in April 2024 by Minister Oyetola at the NIWA headquarters in Lokoja.
NIWA’s enforcement response since 2023 has included increasing its water marshal deployment from 80 officers to 350; introducing mandatory passenger manifests at registered jetties; installing marine navigational buoys; and enforcing a “No Life Jacket, No Boarding” policy.
The Ministry distributed 42,000 life jackets across 12 riverine states in 2025, with each state receiving 3,500 in the first phase. The distribution began in Minna, Niger State. The results, while contested in their precise magnitude, show a measurable downward trend. Industry data shows fatalities dropped from the 2021–2022 average of 330 to 231 in 2024, and further to 92 in the first eight months of 2025 — a period during which NIWA claimed a reduction of up to 72 percent compared to the 2021–2022 baseline. Independent analysts have urged caution about the 72 percent figure, noting it compares eight months of 2025 data against a full-year baseline, and that late-year incidents typically account for a significant share of annual fatalities. A comparison between 2022 and 2024 yields a more defensible figure of approximately 30 percent reduction.
The 2025 Safety Sensitisation Campaign
Beyond endorsing government policy, MWUN has taken its own operational role in safety. In 2025, NIWA ran a waterways sensitization campaign under the theme “Safety and Safety Trip: Zero Tolerance to Boat Mishap, No Life Jacket, No Boarding.” A key highlight of the campaign was the inauguration of waterways marshals at the Zumba waterfront to enforce water transport regulations. MWUN’s network of members and branch structures in riverine communities has been identified as a channel through which safety messaging and compliance campaigns are amplified at the local level.
MWUN has also moved on its own account to bring previously non-unionised seafarers into the formal sector fold. Bunu led the union on a tour of Melsmore Marine Nigeria Limited at Ibeju Lekki in 2025 to sensitize workers there about unionization, flagging that many seafarers were working under hazardous conditions with inadequate health and safety provision. He noted that poor conditions on vessels had claimed the lives of crew members through communicable diseases contracted while at sea.
The Landmark Wage Agreement
On the labour relations front, MWUN achieved one of its most significant breakthroughs in recent years in 2024: the conclusion of a 20-year-old wage dispute in the maritime sector. The Shipping Agencies, Clearing and Forwarding Employers Association (SACFEA) and MWUN signed an agreement establishing a minimum wage of ₦200,000 for shipping industry workers employed by SACFEA members. The deal was brokered by Minister Oyetola and facilitated by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.
Then-President-General Adewale Adeyanju, who was concluding his tenure as the deal was finalised, noted in his farewell briefing with journalists that Hull-Blyth Nigeria Limited initially declined to join the agreement, but subsequently agreed to pay the ₦200,000 minimum wage. The agreement is to be reviewed every two years.
“MWUN will always be open to any collaboration that will positively impact the industry.” — Comrade Francis Bunu, MWUN President-General, on the BOAN-MWUN partnership (Radarr Africa, May 2025)
MWUN and the Broader Development Agenda
MWUN has consistently framed waterways development as a national emergency, not merely an industry issue. During a National Executive Council meeting at Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac, Lagos, former President-General Adeyanju drew attention to the severe job losses from the 2006 port concession exercise — which he said reduced the NPA workforce from approximately 13,000 workers to just 4,000 — while calling on NIWA and NPA to urgently recruit more junior staff to man jetties and port terminals. NIWA’s then-Managing Director, Dr George Moghalu, confirmed at the same meeting that the authority was making preparations to expand its junior workforce.
The union has also called directly on the Federal Government to develop and fortify waterways as a means of effective transportation and employment generation, and to empower relevant agencies to regulate private boat operators and align their operations with economic development objectives.
MWUN’s position is that safety and development are inseparable: an unsafe waterways sector will never attract the investment or public confidence needed to grow.
On maritime security, Bunu has praised NIMASA’s achievements in combating piracy in the Gulf of Guinea — noting the improvement in safety and stability on Nigerian waters — and pledged that MWUN would mobilise its international affiliates to support Nigeria’s bid for a seat on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Council. The union views Nigeria’s prominence in global maritime governance as directly linked to the credibility and development of its domestic waterways sector.
The BOAN-MWUN Partnership: A Model for Collaboration
One of the most concrete recent examples of union-industry collaboration is the partnership between MWUN and the Barge Operators Association of Nigeria. BOAN executives visited the newly elected President-General Bunu at MWUN’s offices in Apapa, Lagos, to formalise discussions on joint working, explicitly noting that MWUN’s scale and reach across the country’s maritime industry made it the natural partner for improving barge operations.
BOAN has been working in parallel with NIWA, NIMASA, the Nigerian Navy, the Nigeria Police, and the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) to improve coordination of waterway traffic. The partnership with MWUN adds a workforce dimension to that multi-agency framework. Observers have noted that if the BOAN-MWUN collaboration produces joint training programmes, improved communication between operators and workers, and better compliance with safety standards, it could serve as a replicable model for other segments of Nigeria’s inland waterways sector.
The Challenges That Remain
For all the genuine activity, the picture is far from resolved. Enforcement on Nigeria’s waterways remains chronically weak, even by the admission of regulatory officials. The National Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB) has noted that more than two-thirds of all boat fatalities are drowning incidents, and that 90 percent of victims were not wearing life jackets at the time of their deaths — despite the existence of regulations mandating their use.
Nigeria recorded more than 3,130 incidents of boat mishaps in the ten years leading to 2024, according to data from the Marine Crafts Builders Association of Nigeria. The frequency of those incidents — on waterways that connect millions of Nigerians in communities where boats are the only viable means of transport — makes the pace of reform feel inadequate to many who live and work on those routes.The institutional fragmentation is also real. NIWA, state waterways authorities such as LASWA and RIWAMA, Marine Police, NEMA, and local government landing committees each have overlapping mandates and limited coordination. The union operates within that complexity, and its influence — though growing — cannot substitute for the institutional reform and sustained funding that the sector ultimately requires.
MWUN itself faces internal development challenges. The union’s new leadership under Bunu has inherited an organisation whose capacity to reach informal sector workers — the majority of those who operate on Nigeria’s inland waterways — remains limited. Formalisation of the workforce is a long-term project, and the economic precariousness of most informal boat operators makes the transition to structured employment genuinely difficult.
Conclusion: A Union at the Centre of a Necessary Conversation
Nigeria’s inland waterways development is not a single project — it is a decades-long national challenge involving infrastructure, regulation, workforce development, safety, and the economic inclusion of millions of riverine Nigerians.
The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria is not the solution to that challenge. But the evidence of its activity — from the SACFEA minimum wage breakthrough, to Bunu’s public endorsement of the wooden boat phase-out, to MWUN’s partnership with BOAN, to its longstanding demands for NIWA and NPA recruitment — shows that the union is actively engaged with that challenge across multiple fronts.What the sector needs now, and what MWUN has begun to articulate with increasing clarity under its new leadership, is a framework in which the union’s knowledge of the workforce and the waterways is formally integrated into planning and development processes — not just consulted after decisions have been made, but engaged as a co-designer of the sector’s future. Nigeria’s rivers have been waiting long enough.
Oyetola Woos Turkish Investors for Fisheries Sector, Vows to Protect Artisanal Fishers
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, has thrown Nigeria’s fisheries sector open to Turkish investment, insisting that any fresh capital coming into the industry must strengthen and not sideline the millions of Nigerians who depend on artisanal fishing for a living.
Oyetola made the pledge while receiving a delegation from Turkish fisheries and aquaculture firm CRD Impex, led by the company’s General Manager for Fisheries, Cem Tarhan, at his Abuja office. He told the investors the Federal Government was ready to create an investment-friendly climate for credible local and foreign players willing to bring capital, technology and modern value-chain solutions to the sector, on condition that such investment remains inclusive.
“We welcome investors who can bring capital, technology, expertise and modern value-chain solutions to the sector. However, investment must be inclusive and sustainable. It must complement and empower our artisanal fish producers, not undermine their livelihoods,” the Minister said
He listed inadequate infrastructure, poor access to modern fishing technology, weak cold-chain systems, limited processing and storage capacity, and gaps in market access as the major constraints holding back the sector, framing each as an opening for targeted investment rather than a dead end.
The Turkish team, which included CRD Impex founder Hanefi Cardak and Tetra Underwater Services founder Ersun Buyukgoze, toured key fisheries and aquaculture points around the country to size up the terrain first-hand. Stops included the Kirikiri Lighter Terminal in Lagos, the Ozumba Mbadiwe Fish Market in Lekki, and the Esuk Nsidung Beach Market, a major waterfront seafood hub in Calabar, Cross River State.
The Ministry described the visit as part of a broader push to attract serious investment into Nigeria’s blue economy while keeping the welfare of artisanal fishers central to that growth.
Nigeria Watch
The Turkish courtesy call lands squarely in the pattern this desk has tracked all year: big-ticket investment pledges for Nigeria’s waterways, paired with familiar assurances that the small operator won’t be crowded out. The test, as always, is what happens after the photo-op.
Nigeria’s artisanal fishing communities occupy the same economic space as the informal boat operators represented by WABOTAN and ATBOWATON, river- and creek-dependent Nigerians whose livelihoods rise or fall on decisions made far from the waterfront. The infrastructure gaps Oyetola cited which include, weak cold-chain systems, poor storage and limited market access, all mirror the exact complaints this desk has documented from inland waterway operators for years but modernisation announced from Abuja rarely reache the jetties.
Turkish capital chasing Nigerian fisheries and aquaculture is a genuinely new thread, distinct from the Strait of Hormuz shipping story or the CVFF disbursement saga this desk has followed closely. But the underlying question is the same one that has defined Oyetola’s tenure at the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy: will “inclusive investment” translate into contracts, cooperative partnerships and cold-chain infrastructure that artisanal operators can actually use or will it, like so many blue-economy pledges before it, stall at the courtesy-visit stage?
Waterways News will be watching for the first concrete CRD Impex commitment — site, timeline, or local partnership — as the marker of whether this one is different.
NPERA, NPA Open Technical Talks on Handover of Inland Dry Port Functions
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have begun formal engagement on transferring inland dry port oversight to NPERA, marking the start of what both agencies describe as a critical phase in operationalising Nigeria’s new port regulatory framework.
At a management-level meeting between the two agencies, officials focused on the technical groundwork for the handover, chiefly how to draw clear lines of responsibility and avoid duplication among the government bodies with a stake in inland dry port administration.
NPERA’s Director-General/CEO, Dr Akutah Pius, framed the transition as flowing directly from the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, whom he credited with steering the process toward the sector’s broader development. Akutah was emphatic that NPERA could not carry out the transfer alone, and said the buy-in of every relevant stakeholder agency would be needed to see it through.
He indicated that the Ministry would stay central to coordinating the process even as specific mandates move to the agencies best placed to execute them. Akutah also pointed to the Minister’s earlier interventions during the NPERA Bill’s passage through the National Assembly, which he said had defused inter-agency friction and set the stage for the cooperation now underway.
Describing the purpose of the meeting, Akutah said it was meant to formally kick off the transfer of inland dry port responsibilities to NPERA in fulfilment of its statutory role as economic regulator of the ports sector. He singled out Section 51 of the NPERA Act as a provision that now needs to be put into practical effect to keep the transition orderly and ensure stakeholder roles are properly aligned.
To manage the process going forward, the NPERA boss proposed setting up a joint committee drawing in NPERA, NPA, the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), and the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy. He argued that inland dry ports matter well beyond the coastline. They extend maritime sector benefits into Nigeria’s hinterland and reinforce the country’s trade and logistics chain.
Responding on behalf of NPA, Managing Director Dr Abubakar Dantsoho welcomed the move and pledged his agency’s full operational and technical backing throughout the transition. He said the process had started on the right footing, and that NPA would furnish updated data on the current state of inland dry ports to inform further discussions, expressing confidence that continued engagement would help the agencies meet their shared objectives.
NPA’s Executive Director, Engr. Lekan Badmus, also commended NPERA for setting the collaboration in motion, calling the meeting a solid first step toward a smooth integration. He noted the two agencies have now moved into the technical phase of the exercise, with close attention being paid to eliminating overlapping functions.
Closing the meeting, Akutah said the proposed joint committee would reconvene with the Minister to seek further guidance and agree on next steps to keep the transition on track.
Nigeria Watch
This meeting is the first visible test of whether the NPERA Act’s promise of a rationalised port regulatory architecture can survive contact with Nigeria’s crowded agency landscape. Section 51’s transfer of inland dry port functions to NPERA looks straightforward on paper; in practice, it touches NPA’s traditional port administration turf, NIWA’s inland waterways mandate, and the Ministry’s coordinating role all at once, precisely the kind of overlapping jurisdiction that has bedevilled reform efforts elsewhere in the sector, most visibly in the long-running NIWA-LASWA tussle that only the Supreme Court could settle.
The proposed joint committee of NPERA, NPA, NIWA, and the Ministry, is a sensible mechanism, but Waterways News readers who have followed the CVFF disbursement saga know that Nigerian maritime governance has no shortage of well-designed committees whose outputs never quite reach implementation. What will matter is whether Akutah’s “technical phase” produces a binding timeline, not another round of goodwill statements.
For inland dry port operators and the hinterland trade corridors that depend on them, the stakes are practical: unclear jurisdiction between NPA and NPERA has historically meant slower cargo evacuation, duplicated levies, and uncertainty for freight forwarders planning routes away from the congested Lagos ports. If this transition is handled well, it strengthens the case for dry ports as genuine pressure valves for Apapa and Tin Can. If it stalls in inter-agency turf negotiation, it becomes one more entry in the gap between policy pronouncement and delivery that this desk continues to track.
Worth watching: whether Minister Oyetola’s office sets an explicit deadline when the committee reconvenes, and whether NIWA, whose inland waterways mandate intersects with dry port hinterland connectivity, gets more than a seat at the table.
Two More Tankers Struck in Strait of Hormuz as Attack Count Hits Five in a Week
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Two more tankers have been hit while transiting the Strait of Hormuz, leaving two seafarers with minor injuries and pushing the number of reported attacks or security incidents against commercial vessels in the waterway to at least five since 16 September.
The UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre said an inbound tanker was struck by an unidentified projectile on Monday. Two crew members sustained minor injuries, but the vessel stayed under its own power and continued to its next port, with no environmental impact reported.
Hours later, UKMTO issued a second alert after an outbound LPG tanker reported being struck by debris from unknown projectiles. All crew were reported safe and the vessel also continued its voyage. Authorities are investigating both incidents, and UKMTO has not attributed either attack to a specific actor.
The two strikes build on a Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) advisory covering three earlier attacks between 16 and 18 September, one of which saw a tanker’s hull breached by a projectile, sparking a fire. JMIC continues to rate the threat level in the strait as “severe,” citing a high likelihood of deliberate hostile action and pointing to a pattern of harassment by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — drone overflights, surveillance of merchant vessels and VHF hailing, alongside the direct attacks.
Traffic through the chokepoint remains sharply depressed. Only 17 commodity vessels were visibly transiting over the weekend, down from 37 the week before and against a pre-war daily average of roughly 125. That figure excludes vessels sailing with their AIS transponders switched off, and JMIC notes a persistent gap between visible and actual traffic.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigerian maritime stakeholders, the Hormuz crisis is no longer a distant Gulf story. It is a cost line. Every fresh escalation feeds directly into the war-risk insurance premiums and freight rates that Nigerian importers, refiners and shipping agents ultimately absorb, since global tanker and container capacity pulled off the Hormuz route tightens supply elsewhere and pushes rates up across long-haul trades, including those serving West African ports.
The renewed attacks also sharpen the stakes around Nigeria’s push for a stronger voice at the IMO Council table and its broader blue-economy diplomacy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. A sustained Gulf disruption is exactly the kind of systemic shock that tests whether Nigeria’s seat translates into influence over how global shipping risk, insurance and rerouting decisions are made, rather than Nigeria simply absorbing the downstream cost.
Locally, the episode is a reminder of the layered nature of “maritime security” as a policy word: the Deep Blue Project and Gulf of Guinea security architecture address piracy and armed robbery close to home, but Nigeria’s ports and shippers remain exposed to security failures thousands of kilometres away in the Gulf.
Waterways News will continue tracking how the Hormuz situation feeds into freight cost pressure at Nigerian ports and NIMASA’s public messaging on the issue.
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