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IMO Sets Global Rules for Autonomous Ships — What It Means for Nigeria’s Waterways
IMO Sets Global Rules for Autonomous Ships — What It Means for Nigeria’s Waterways
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News Reporter
The global shipping community reached a significant milestone last week as the International Maritime Organization (IMO) formally adopted the world’s first international regulatory framework for autonomous commercial vessels — a development that carries direct implications for Nigeria’s growing interest in technology-driven waterway transportation.
The new instrument, known as the International Code of Safety for Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS Code), was approved during the 111th session of the IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee, held in London from May 13 to 22. The committee adopted a global code for autonomous ships and advanced guidelines for ships operating on alternative fuels.. This represents the clearest signal yet that self-navigating and remotely operated vessels are no longer a distant concept but an emerging reality that global regulators must now govern.
For Nigeria — a country with approximately 10,000 kilometres of navigable inland waterways and a Federal Government increasingly focused on the Blue Economy — the development is one to watch closely.
A Framework for the Future
The MASS Code defines four distinct levels of vessel automation, beginning with ships fitted with computerised decision-support tools and extending all the way to fully autonomous vessels capable of making operational choices without any direct human control. Each level carries its own set of safety, accountability and communications obligations.
The code addresses a wide range of technical concerns, including cybersecurity vulnerabilities, remote communications infrastructure, navigation systems, fire safety, cargo handling, machinery management, watchkeeping standards and search-and-rescue responsibilities during autonomous operations.
Among the more complex questions the IMO grappled with in developing the framework were who legally qualifies as the “master” of a vessel during autonomous operations, the duties of remote operators stationed onshore, and how liability would be apportioned in the event of incidents involving machine-driven decision-making — issues that no existing international maritime law had adequately resolved.
Nigeria and the Technology Conversation
As Nigerian authorities continue to modernise the country’s waterway sector, the emergence of an internationally recognised autonomous vessel framework creates both opportunities and responsibilities. Nigeria has previously received unmanned vessel technology through international partnerships, and there is growing discussion about digitalisation across the country’s ports and ferry services. The MASS Code now provides a formal global reference point against which any domestic deployment of autonomous or remotely operated vessels would need to be assessed.
Phased Implementation
The code will not immediately become binding. The IMO has structured a phased approach, beginning with a voluntary experience-building phase later in 2026 to collect operational data from real-world deployments around the world. Work on a mandatory version of the code is expected to commence in 2028, with adoption targeted for 2030 and the regulations set to enter into force in January 2032.
This timeline offers Nigerian regulators and stakeholders a window to study the framework, participate in international consultations, and begin aligning domestic policy where necessary — particularly given Nigeria’s ambition to develop its inland waterway corridors as commercial and passenger transport routes.
Broader Safety Agenda
Beyond autonomous shipping, the Maritime Safety Committee’s 111th session also addressed growing security concerns in the Strait of Hormuz, greenhouse gas safety standards linked to alternative marine fuels, and updated technical regulations for vessels powered by hydrogen and ammonia. The meeting signals that the IMO’s regulatory agenda is accelerating across multiple fronts, and Nigeria’s maritime and waterways agencies will need to stay engaged at the international level to ensure the country’s interests are reflected as these frameworks continue to evolve.
🇳🇬 NIGERIA WATCH Tracking the story across Ministries, Departments and Agencies
Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy As the supervising ministry for Nigeria’s entire maritime and waterways sector, the FMMBE carries the primary responsibility for interpreting the MASS Code and determining how it aligns with Nigeria’s Blue Economy roadmap. The ministry will need to initiate a policy review that positions Nigeria to participate actively in the IMO’s experience-building phase beginning later in 2026, and to begin preparing a domestic regulatory position ahead of the mandatory code expected by 2030. Nigeria’s ongoing campaign for a seat on the IMO Council makes early and visible engagement with this framework a matter of both policy and diplomatic credibility.
Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) As Nigeria’s flag state administration and the body directly interfacing with the IMO, NIMASA is the agency most immediately affected by the MASS Code. The agency will be expected to review Nigeria’s Ship Safety framework to determine how existing regulations governing vessel certification, inspection and crew standards apply — or fail to apply — to autonomous and remotely operated vessels. NIMASA will also need to develop a clear stance on the liability and manning questions the MASS Code raises, particularly around the definition of “master” in autonomous operations and the regulatory status of remote operators.
National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) NIWA governs Nigeria’s vast inland waterway network — the very environment where autonomous and remotely operated vessels are most likely to be used domestically, given the shorter route distances involved. The authority must begin assessing its existing licensing and inspection frameworks to determine whether they are adequate for vessels operating with reduced or no crew. NIWA’s ongoing digitalisation efforts and its Nigeria Water Transportation Code provide a useful foundation, but autonomous vessel operations will require new thinking around remote monitoring, jetty infrastructure compatibility and waterway traffic management.
Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) As the busiest waterway state agency in Nigeria, managing one of Africa’s most active urban ferry networks, LASWA has a direct interest in how autonomous vessel technology could eventually be applied to Lagos’s water transportation system. The authority should be tracking the MASS Code closely, given ongoing conversations around modernising the Lagos ferry fleet and reducing accident rates. Any future introduction of remotely operated ferries on Lagos waterways would fall within the regulatory scope that the MASS Code is now beginning to define globally.
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Port operations are explicitly addressed within the MASS Code, raising questions about how autonomous vessels arriving at or departing from Nigerian ports would be handled in terms of berthing, pilotage, and port state control inspections. The NPA will need to consider whether its port infrastructure, communications systems and operational protocols are compatible with vessels that may have no crew aboard or may be operated remotely from a distant control centre.
Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) The arrival of autonomous cargo vessels at Nigerian ports raises important questions for customs operations — specifically around vessel boarding, documentation verification, and the chain of responsibility for goods carried on crewless ships. The NCS will need to engage with NIMASA and the NPA to develop a joint position on how existing customs boarding and inspection procedures would be adapted for autonomous vessel operations.
Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) / Nigerian Navy The MASS Code’s attention to cybersecurity is particularly significant from a national security perspective. Autonomous vessels operating in Nigerian waters — whether coastal or inland — represent a potential vulnerability if their remote control systems are compromised. The Nigerian Navy and ONSA should be part of any inter-agency working group established to develop Nigeria’s domestic response to the MASS Code, with specific attention to the cybersecurity and sovereignty dimensions of remotely operated vessels in Nigeria’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Autonomous vessels are entirely dependent on robust, low-latency communications infrastructure for remote operation and real-time monitoring. The ministry’s work on expanding broadband connectivity — including to coastal and riverine communities — is therefore directly relevant to whether autonomous vessel technology can practically function in Nigerian waters. A policy conversation between this ministry and the FMMBE has yet to happen publicly; the MASS Code makes it necessary.
National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) As the agency responsible for regulating and developing Nigeria’s digital ecosystem, NITDA has a role to play in establishing cybersecurity standards for maritime technology systems. The MASS Code’s strong emphasis on cybersecurity for autonomous vessels means that NITDA’s frameworks will need to be extended explicitly to cover maritime digital infrastructure, particularly remote vessel control systems.
Waterways News | waterwaysnews.ng
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.
Blue Economy
Oyetola Confirms 7,059 Nigerian Seafarers Placed Onboard Vessels, Orders NIMASA to Fast-Track CVFF Disbursement
Oyetola Confirms 7,059 Nigerian Seafarers Placed Onboard Vessels, Orders NIMASA to Fast-Track CVFF Disbursement
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, says 7,059 Nigerian seafarers have so far been placed onboard vessels to acquire seatime experience, part of what he described as the Federal Government’s broader push to build a competitive indigenous maritime workforce.
The Minister, in a statement issued through his Special Adviser, Dr Bolaji Akinola, at the weekend, also directed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to work more closely with the 12 approved Primary Lending Institutions (PLIs) to accelerate disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to qualified Nigerian shipowners.
According to the statement, NIMASA has so far received 92 applications under the CVFF framework, of which 20 have been forwarded to the PLIs and one has been reviewed and cleared for approval. Oyetola said the ship acquisition initiative could generate more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs across shipyards, marine engineering firms and maritime logistics companies, while deepening Nigeria’s domestic ship-owning and shipbuilding base.
The Minister linked the disbursement push to President Bola Tinubu’s authorisation to unlock financing long owed to domestic maritime operators, framing it as central to realising the economic potential of Nigeria’s blue economy.
On manpower development, Oyetola disclosed that 222 seafarers had been trained free of charge in basic and advanced professional courses, while 333 cadets completed academic training and were awarded degrees. Under the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP), 135 cadets have completed the programme and obtained their Certificates of Competency (CoC).
He said the interventions reflect government’s commitment to strengthening indigenous maritime capacity so that Nigerians can benefit directly from opportunities created by the blue economy.
Nigeria Watch
The seafarer numbers are worth celebrating, but the more consequential line in Oyetola’s statement is the one about CVFF: 92 applications received, 20 forwarded to PLIs, and just one, only one is reviewed and cleared for approval. That ratio is the real story.
Waterways News has tracked the CVFF disbursement saga for years, and the pattern here is familiar: an announcement of “significant progress” that, on closer reading, describes a process still largely stuck at the application stage. Nigerian shipowners have waited over two decades for meaningful access to this fund, first established in 2003. A single approved application, even framed as forward momentum, does not yet amount to disbursement, and it is disbursement, not directives to NIMASA and the PLIs, that shipowners can take to the bank.
The seafarer placement and training figures are a genuine bright spot and speak to real capacity-building through NIMASA’s cadetship and NSDP schemes. But they sit somewhat apart from the CVFF question.
Training seafarers builds the workforce; it does not put Nigerian-owned vessels on the water for that workforce to crew. Until the CVFF pipeline moves from “20 applications forwarded” to actual funds reaching qualified shipowners, Nigeria’s ambition to grow an indigenous shipowning fleet — the same ambition the Minister invoked in citing 30,000 potential jobs — remains aspirational.
Waterways News will continue to press for concrete disbursement timelines and named beneficiaries under the CVFF, rather than accept process updates as a substitute for delivery.
Blue Economy
Navy, Fisheries Department Arrest 34 Suspects, Seize Three Vessels in Renewed War on Illegal Fishing
Navy, Fisheries Department Arrest 34 Suspects, Seize Three Vessels in Renewed War on Illegal Fishing
By Raymond Gold | Waterways News
The Federal Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture and the Nigerian Navy have struck a fresh blow against illegal fishing in Nigerian waters, seizing three vessels and arresting 34 suspects in a coordinated three-day sweep.
The operation, codenamed Operation Abo Eja 2026, was designed to tighten surveillance and enforcement against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, one of the most persistent threats to Nigeria’s marine resources and the livelihoods that depend on them.
Among those arrested were 24 Nigerians, three Ghanaians and three Chinese nationals, underlining the increasingly foreign and cross-border character of the illegal trawling networks operating off the country’s coast.
The Western Naval Command led the offshore muscle of the operation, deploying a naval ship, a helicopter and Special Boat Service personnel, while the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture supplied technical and regulatory backing to ensure the arrests translate into prosecutable enforcement action.
Deputy Director at the Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Adeleke Adegoke, said the operation underscored the need for sharper intelligence gathering and better information sharing between agencies to make future raids more targeted and effective.
Flag Officer Commanding the Western Naval Command, Rear Admiral Abdullahi Mustapha, described the exercise as proof of effective inter-agency coordination, adding that it would strengthen ongoing efforts to safeguard Nigeria’s marine resources.
Nigeria Watch
Operation Abo Eja 2026 lands squarely inside a theme this desk has tracked for months: the steady erosion of Nigerian control over its own coastal waters. Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is not a fringe nuisance — it is a direct assault on artisanal fishing communities and the small-scale operators who make up the bulk of Nigeria’s blue economy workforce, even as foreign trawlers, often flagged or crewed out of Asia, continue to test the limits of enforcement.
The presence of Chinese nationals among those arrested will not surprise close observers of Nigeria’s fisheries sector, where foreign-linked trawling operations have long been accused of over-exploiting stocks with little regard for licensing or seasonal restrictions. It also reinforces a broader pattern this publication has flagged repeatedly: foreign dominance of Nigerian coastal waters remains an unresolved policy failure, one that recurs regardless of which agency is nominally in charge.
The joint Navy-fisheries model deployed here — naval assets providing muscle, the fisheries department providing regulatory teeth — is also the same architecture underpinning the Deep Blue Project and broader Gulf of Guinea security efforts championed by the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. Deputy Director Adegoke’s call for better intelligence sharing is a familiar refrain in Nigerian maritime enforcement: the hardware and manpower for these operations increasingly exist, but the surveillance and prosecutorial follow-through that would deter repeat offenders has historically lagged.
For the informal and small-scale operators this desk covers closely, the real test will not be the headline arrest numbers but what happens next — whether the 34 suspects face meaningful prosecution, whether the three seized vessels are forfeited rather than quietly released, and whether Operation Abo Eja 2026 becomes a sustained enforcement posture rather than another one-off show of force.
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