Blue Economy
TWO YEARS ON: HOW MOBEREOLA IS RESHAPING NIMASA AND NIGERIA’S BLUE ECONOMY AMBITION
TWO YEARS ON: HOW MOBEREOLA IS RESHAPING NIMASA AND NIGERIA’S BLUE ECONOMY AMBITION
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News Correspondent | Lagos
When Dr. Dayo Mobereola assumed the helm of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on March 22, 2024, he walked into an agency weighed down by training backlogs, regulatory gaps, and a global reputation tainted by piracy-era insurance penalties. Two years later, the picture looks strikingly different.
From an IMO Council seat to world-class security ratings from the United States Coast Guard, NIMASA under Mobereola has repositioned Nigeria not just as a West African maritime player, but as a credible voice in global maritime governance.
Dr. Dayo Mobereola Director General NIMASA
Seafarer Training Gets a Lifeline
The backlog in the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) was one of the agency’s most glaring failures before Mobereola’s arrival. He tackled it head-on. Over 235 cadets have since been dispatched to top maritime institutions in India and Greece for training as Licensed Deck and Engine Officers — a significant acceleration of a programme that had stalled for years.
In a symbolic but telling gesture, Mobereola personally attended the 2025 graduation ceremony of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) — a first for a sitting NIMASA Director-General, and a signal of renewed institutional commitment to Nigeria’s seafarer pipeline.
The agency has also modernised its Certificates of Competency (CoC) verification process, bringing Nigeria in line with global STCW requirements and tightening the integrity of its seafarer licensing system.
IMO Council Victory: Nigeria Returns to the Table
The crown jewel of NIMASA’s two-year run is Nigeria’s election into Category C of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Council for the 2026–2027 biennium — the country’s first return to the Council in over a decade.
The win, secured at the IMO General Assembly in London on November 28, 2025, came on the back of more than twelve months of diplomatic shuttling, stakeholder engagement, and sustained advocacy. Marine and Blue Economy Minister Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, CON, who led the campaign, credited Nigeria’s reformed maritime security architecture and improvements in the Gulf of Guinea as decisive factors.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu formally commended NIMASA’s management, describing the outcome as a strong affirmation of Nigeria’s growing influence in international maritime affairs.
Digital Overhaul of Maritime Labour Administration
In June 2025, the Federal Government launched the Maritime Labour E-Platform at a Day of the Seafarer event in Port Harcourt. The platform — described by Minister Oyetola as transformative — consolidates the registration of seafarers, dockworkers, employers and other stakeholders under a single digital system, with biometric ID cards replacing paper-heavy processes.
“By centralising registration and issuing secure biometric ID cards, it cuts paperwork, speeds up processing, and gives us reliable real-time data,” said Jibril Abba, NIMASA’s Executive Director for Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services. “This helps us meet our obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention and boosts Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global Blue Economy.”
The platform fulfils NIMASA’s mandate under Section 27(1)(a) of the NIMASA Act 2007 and aligns the country with the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 — the so-called Seafarers’ Bill of Rights.
Operation Zero Tolerance: Enforcement with Teeth
Capacity-building without enforcement is half a policy. Mobereola demonstrated he understands this when NIMASA launched “Operation Zero Tolerance for Non-Compliance” in January 2026 — a targeted enforcement drive covering vessel registration, certifications, Cabotage compliance, ownership documentation, and fee payments.
The operation put all operators on notice: ship owners, oil companies, charterers, offshore installation operators and Free Trade Zone vessel operators were required to self-audit within a 30-day grace period. After that window closed, NIMASA made clear that vessel detention, monetary penalties, and denial of port clearance were the consequences for non-compliance.
“We urge all stakeholders to do their part so that together, we can build on the gains of previous regulatory achievements,” Mobereola stated.
Fighting the War Risk Insurance Premium
Perhaps no campaign better illustrates Mobereola’s international boldness than Nigeria’s push to be removed from war risk insurance (WRI) premium zones.
Nigeria has invested billions in maritime security. The Deep Blue Project has effectively ended piracy in Nigerian waters. Yet international insurers continue to classify Nigeria as high-risk — driving up shipping costs for Nigerian importers, and making Nigerian ports less competitive than they should be.
Under Minister Oyetola’s directive, Mobereola has taken Nigeria’s case directly to the world’s major shipping bodies: BIMCO, the International Chamber of Shipping, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO. He also met with Chatham House’s Africa Programme Director Dr. Alex Vines, who agreed to escalate the matter to the United Nations.
Stinne Taiger Ivø, Deputy Secretary General of BIMCO, acknowledged Nigeria’s progress and called on ship owners to push for lower premiums. Zhou Xianyong of INTERCARGO offered assurances of support. Most recently, NIMASA engaged a Danish delegation, strategically targeting Denmark due to its significant stake in Maersk Line — in a bid to get Maersk’s influence working in Nigeria’s favour.
Infrastructure Push: Shipyards, Floating Docks and PPP
November 2025 saw NIMASA accredit 27 shipyards for operation across Nigeria — a meaningful boost to domestic ship repair and maintenance capacity. Ongoing efforts to operationalise the N50 billion Modular Floating Dock at the agency’s Apapa base are expected to further strengthen Nigeria’s maritime infrastructure.
Recognising that government cannot carry this alone, Mobereola has actively championed the Public-Private Partnership model, engaging the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to develop PPP frameworks that can attract both domestic and foreign investors.
Green Credentials: NIMASA at COP 30
NIMASA has also staked Nigeria’s claim as a leader in African maritime decarbonisation. At COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, the agency presented its Nigerian Maritime Continuous Emissions Monitoring System — a landmark tool developed in collaboration with University College London’s research group.
The journey started at COP 28, where NIMASA launched the call for an African Coalition on IMO emissions reduction; progressed at COP 29 with the presentation of a verifiable Nigerian maritime emissions inventory; and culminated at COP 30 with the formal unveiling of the monitoring system.
The IMO Secretary General’s representative, Roel Hoeders, commended NIMASA for deepening the continent’s conversation on maritime energy transition.
Seafarer Rights: Nigeria Leads at the ILO
On the international labour front, Mobereola has been equally vocal. At the 353rd session of the ILO Governing Body in Geneva in March 2025, he delivered a passionate address advocating for the formal designation of seafarers as key workers — a recognition that would guarantee their legal protection, priority access to healthcare, and fair labour conditions under the MLC 2006.
Domestically, NIMASA facilitated a Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2025 between the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and shipping companies, establishing a reviewed minimum wage framework and clearer working conditions.
Security Gains Earn Global Recognition
Nigeria’s maritime security transformation has drawn praise from unexpected quarters. Following assessment visits to Dangote Port, Lekki Free Trade Zone, and private facilities in Warri, the United States Coast Guard delivered a verdict that few in the industry anticipated.
“Nigeria’s compliance with the ISPS Code ranks amongst the best globally,” said Joe Prince Larson, who led the USCG assessment team.
The assessment is part of a three-year plan to support the lifting of the Condition of Entry placed on Nigeria-bound vessels heading to American ports — a development that would significantly open up Nigeria’s maritime trade lanes. Naval officers from 20 countries participating in the French-led Siren Course also made a special port call in Lagos to study NIMASA’s C4I Centre, with the French Defence Attaché calling the Navy-NIMASA partnership “a model worthy of study.”
CVFF Disbursement in Sight
The long-delayed Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) — a persistent frustration for indigenous shipowners — has shown new signs of life under Mobereola. In January 2026, NIMASA commissioned the CVFF Application Portal, and meaningful disbursement to Nigerian shipowners is now anticipated within 2026.
Combined with the 27 newly accredited shipyards, the developments are beginning to create an ecosystem where local operators can finance vessels and access domestic repair services — a crucial step toward genuine cabotage growth.
The Road Ahead
As NIMASA moves deeper into 2026, the foundations are in place. But the harder work — converting policy into commercial outcomes — lies ahead. The war risk insurance campaign must yield real premium reductions. The CVFF must translate into actual fleet expansion. The IMO Council seat must be leveraged. The Floating Dock must be operationalized.
What is already beyond dispute is that under Mobereola’s watch, NIMASA has moved from a reactive regulator struggling with compliance backlogs to a proactive institution earning commendations on the global stage. Whether the momentum holds will determine whether Nigeria’s maritime sector finally delivers on its longstanding promise as an engine of national development.
Blue Economy
Water Transport Operators Push For Recognition At The Table As FTAN Demands Tourism Policy Reforms
Water Transport Operators Push For Recognition At The Table As FTAN Demands Tourism Policy Reforms
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
Nigeria’s tourism sector needs urgent policy reform, stronger collaboration and fresh investment to compete globally and water transport operators who are members of the Federation of Tourism Associations of Nigeria (FTAN) want that conversation to include the boats, ferries and waterway routes that move millions of Nigerians and could move even more tourists.
That was the underlying idea raised by Comrade Babatope Fajemirokun National President of Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN) represented by Chief Raymond Gold, National PRO of WABOTAN, at the ninth Nigeria Tourism Investors Forum and Exhibition (NTIFE), held over two days in Abuja under the theme “Tourism Transformation Through Collaboration, Policy Alignment and Investment.” The events took place between Thursday 30 to Friday 31 of July 2026. Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN), is a corporate member of FTAN
The forum drew policymakers, investors, tourism operators and development partners.
FTAN President Dr Aliyu Badaki used his welcome remarks to press the Federal Government to overhaul tourism-related laws and regulatory frameworks that he said breed duplication, institutional conflict and legal uncertainty for operators. He said the federation’s newly developed Tourism Transformation Mandate (TTM) is meant to unify every segment of the tourism value chain.
Babatope Fajemirokun, through Chief Gold emphasizes the fact that this value chain for Nigeria’s coastal cities, riverine communities and inland waterway corridors, runs directly through water transport.
Badaki argued that fragmented efforts and weak coordination have held back the sector for years, and called for regulation that enables rather than inhibits growth.
Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, who declared the forum open, described tourism as a strategic pillar for economic diversification. She said government cannot finance tourism transformation alone and that private capital must lead, with government’s role limited to creating an enabling environment for investors.
In his keynote address, Sen. Ibrahim Ida called for stronger collaboration among government, the private sector and host communities, saying tourism can generate jobs, foreign exchange and diversification if properly harnessed.
Panel sessions, moderated by Justina Ovat of Calabar Hospitality House Limited, featured Nigeria Tourism Development Authority (NTDA) Director-General Dr Ola Awakan, who called for policy consistency and investor-friendly incentives, and Dr Philip Maga of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism (NIHOTOUR), who flagged the need for stronger workforce training to close skills gaps across the hospitality industry.
Hospitality entrepreneur Lanre Balogun urged investors to prioritise disciplined, long-term planning.
Nigeria Watch
For Nigeria’s water transport sector, NTIFE’s reform push is not a side conversation. Rather, it is a direct stakeholder issue. FTAN’s corporate membership includes Waterfront Boat Owners and Transporters Association of Nigeria (WABOTAN) and the Association of Tourist Boat Operators and Water Transporters of Nigeria (ATBOWATON), both drawn from the ranks of operators who run the boats, ferries and water taxis that already serve Lagos’s creeks, the Niger Delta’s riverine towns and coastal leisure routes. Their presence inside FTAN means the federation’s demand for regulatory clarity and coordinated policy carries an inland-waterways and blue-economy dimension that goes beyond hotels and heritage sites.
That matters because water tourism sits at an awkward regulatory junction in Nigeria. A tourist boat operator answers not only to tourism authorities but potentially to NIWA, LASWA (in Lagos) and NIMASA on safety standards, and state government tourism boards, precisely the kind of overlapping jurisdiction Badaki described as breeding “duplication, institutional conflicts… and operational uncertainty.”
The 2026 Supreme Court ruling affirming NIWA’s regulatory authority over inland waterways nationwide, following the NIWA-LASWA jurisdictional dispute, is a live example of the kind of institutional friction FTAN’s Tourism Transformation Mandate is meant to resolve, at least on the tourism side.
Musawa’s call for private capital to lead tourism investment also lands squarely on water transport operators’ desks. Vessel acquisition, safety retrofitting, jetty infrastructure and life-jacket compliance all require capital that small-scale operators, including WABOTAN’s member-cooperative structure, have struggled to access, a gap that echoes the long-running CVFF disbursement failure in the cabotage shipping sector and underscores why financing bottlenecks are not unique to cargo and passenger shipping alone.
If FTAN’s push for policy alignment succeeds in drawing water transport formally into Nigeria’s tourism investment architecture, operators like WABOTAN and ATBOWATON could gain a stronger claim to inclusion in infrastructure programmes such as the Omi-Eko electric ferry project and LASWA’s ferry safety development initiatives, turning routine commuter water transport into a recognised leisure and tourism asset, not just a transportation afterthought.
For a sector accustomed to being regulated but rarely consulted, this call by Babatope Fajemirokun is a modest but meaningful call.
Blue Economy
NIMASA Deepens Seafarer Welfare Push, Signs Off Renewed Mission to Seafarers Collaboration
NIMASA Deepens Seafarer Welfare Push, Signs Off Renewed Mission to Seafarers Collaboration
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has restated its commitment to improving the welfare of Nigerian seafarers, pledging deeper collaboration with the Mission to Seafarers (MtS) as part of ongoing reforms in the sector.
The commitment came as the Director-General, Dr Dayo Mobereola, received a delegation from the Mission to Seafarers at the agency’s Lagos headquarters, led by the Chairman of MtS Lagos, Chief Adebayo Sarumi, alongside the Regional Director for Africa, Reverend Cedric Rautenbach.
Speaking on behalf of the DG, NIMASA’s Executive Director for Operations, Engr. Fatai Taiye Adeyemi, said the agency would continue tightening certification processes, expanding capacity development programmes, and strengthening welfare policies for seafarers both at sea and in port, in partnership with stakeholders such as the Mission to Seafarers.
Chief Sarumi commended NIMASA’s ongoing reforms and expressed confidence that closer collaboration would translate into tangible welfare gains for Nigerian maritime professionals. Reverend Rautenbach, for his part, clarified that while the Mission to Seafarers and Nigeria’s Port Welfare Committees pursue a shared objective which is the the wellbeing of seafarers. The two bodies operate on distinct, complementary mandates, making coordination between them essential to strengthening on-ground support at Nigerian ports.
The meeting covered decent working conditions, welfare service gaps, and areas of mutual collaboration. NIMASA said the engagement aligns with its obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006, and forms part of a broader push toward stronger regulatory oversight and stakeholder engagement on seafarer rights.
Nigeria Watch
Beyond the courtesy-visit optics, this meeting lands on a fault line that has dogged Nigerian seafarer welfare for years: fragmented institutional responsibility. NIMASA regulates and certifies; Port Welfare Committees are meant to deliver frontline services at berths; the Mission to Seafarers, a faith-based international NGO, fills gaps neither statutory body always reaches. These gaps are chaplaincy, shore leave support, emergency assistance, and advocacy for stranded or abandoned crew.
Rautenbach’s point about “distinct but complementary mandates” is worth pressing on, because in practice that distinction has often meant duplication in some areas and total absence in others.
Nigerian seafarers have long reported patchy access to welfare facilities at ports like Apapa, Tin Can Island, and Onne. Such reports include inconsistent internet access, poor rest facilities, and slow response to cases of wage default or abandonment by errant shipowners, issues MWUN has repeatedly raised in past CBA compliance disputes.
NIMASA’s MLC 2006 framing is the right one, but enforcement, not policy language, remains the industry’s persistent complaint. If this renewed MtS partnership is to mean more than another photo-op at headquarters, it should translate into a documented, port-by-port welfare service map: which ports have functioning seafarer centres, which Port Welfare Committees are actually active, and where the Mission to Seafarers’ Flying Angel network is present versus where seafarers are effectively on their own.
Nigerian crews calling at their own national ports deserve better than welfare support that depends on which NGO happens to be in town.
NIMASA Bets on Youths to Power Nigeria’s Blue Giant Ambitions
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) has restated that the country’s push to become Africa’s “Blue Giant” will rise or fall on how well it equips young Nigerians for the blue economy, with the agency’s Director-General, Dr Dayo Mobereola, describing youth capacity-building as the engine room of the National Marine and Blue Economy Policy.
Mobereola made the point at the 10th Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime (TAAM) Lecture at the University of Lagos, where he was represented by NIMASA’s Director of Reforms Coordination and Blue Economy, Mrs Nneka Obianyor. He linked the agency’s youth agenda directly to President Bola Tinubu’s economic diversification drive, noting that the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has directed NIMASA to prioritise skills development and job creation for young Nigerians in the sector.
Director-General of NIMASA, Dr. Dayo Mobereola
To back that up, Mobereola pointed to a cluster of NIMASA programmes already running: the long-standing Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), a newly launched Blue Economy Accelerator Initiative, skills acquisition centres spread across the six geopolitical zones, and the rollout of Institutes of Maritime Studies in select Nigerian universities. He framed these as deliberate interventions meant to build capacity, generate employment, and spur innovation among the country’s youth population.
Separately, NIMASA used the UNILAG engagement to go beyond ceremony, running an interactive session with doctoral and master’s students on shipping development, maritime logistics, cabotage implementation, and maritime labour regulation. The session was led by the agency’s Director of Cabotage Services, Ms Gloria Anyasodo, and was pitched as part of a broader effort to strengthen ties between academia and industry in tackling the maritime sector’s practical challenges.
Nigeria Watch
The optics are good; the test, as always, will be delivery. NIMASA has no shortage of youth-facing initiatives on paper. The NSDP has existed for years, skills centres have been announced before, and Institutes of Maritime Studies have been floated in past budget cycles. What’s new here is the Blue Economy Accelerator Initiative, and it arrives with the same vagueness that has dogged similar rollouts: no disclosed funding envelope, no timeline for the six geopolitical zone centres to be fully operational, and no public framework for how graduates of these programmes are absorbed into shipping, logistics, or cabotage jobs afterward.
That absorption question matters more than any lecture-hall soundbite. Nigeria’s maritime training pipeline, from MAN Oron to the seafarer certification backlog that this publication has tracked, already produces more qualified hands than the domestic fleet and port ecosystem can currently employ. This is a mismatch tied directly to the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund’s decades-long disbursement failure and the slow pace of indigenous vessel acquisition. Training more youths without fixing that bottleneck simply shifts the frustration downstream, from unemployment to underemployment.
There’s also an accountability gap in how these announcements are made. They are usually made through a lecture delegation rather than a costed policy document. If NIMASA and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy are serious about youths driving the Blue Giant ambition, the next disclosure should include enrolment numbers, the accelerator’s funding source, and most critically, the placement data showing how many NSDP and skills-centre graduates have actually found sea-time or shore-based maritime employment. Until then, this remains a well-intentioned promise stacked on top of several older, still-unfulfilled promises.
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