Blue Economy
HOW WEST AFRICA BECAME RUSSIA’S FLAG OF CONVENIENCE: THE TOA PAYOH BOARDING AND THE COTONOU-TO-ISTANBUL SANCTIONS PIPELINE
HOW WEST AFRICA BECAME RUSSIA’S FLAG OF CONVENIENCE: THE TOA PAYOH BOARDING AND THE COTONOU-TO-ISTANBUL SANCTIONS PIPELINE
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterways News
An Italian naval helicopter dropped a boarding team onto the deck of the tanker Toa Payoh on Sunday morning, west of the Sicilian island of Pantelleria, in a two-hour operation that briefly halted a vessel that had left the Beninese port of Cotonou on July 16 bound for Istanbul. The ship’s master reportedly resisted cooperating at first. By the time the Italian Navy’s Thaon di Revel released it, the tanker had become the latest exhibit in a maritime story that increasingly runs through African ports, not just Russian ones.
The Toa Payoh was sailing under a Cameroonian flag it had registered only days earlier. That single fact, more than the boarding itself, is what should concern readers across West and Central Africa’s maritime corridor. It is not a European story that happens to mention Africa. It is an African maritime governance failure that Europe is now policing at sea because African institutions have not closed the gap onshore.
WHAT HAPPENED OFF PANTELLERIA
Italy’s Defence Ministry said personnel from Operation EUNAVFOR MED Irini intercepted the Toa Payoh, an EU-sanctioned tanker, to verify whether it was legally entitled to fly the Cameroonian flag it had adopted. The inspection, backed by a Greek vessel and a Polish maritime patrol aircraft, was carried out under Article 110 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which permits a warship to check the nationality documents of a merchant vessel on the high seas.
Irini does not have the mandate to seize ships during these boardings, so the Toa Payoh was released once the inspection concluded. Documentation collected on board is being reviewed and could support a future sequestration by national authorities. There was no immediate response from Moscow.
This was the second such Irini boarding in under two weeks. On July 20, the same Italian patrol vessel intercepted the MV South Star southeast of Sicily, also over suspicions of false flagging. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has framed the boardings as an escalation of Brussels’ campaign against tankers that keep Russian oil moving despite sanctions imposed since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
THE AFRICAN REGISTRY AT THE CENTRE OF THE STORY
What Sunday’s boarding underlines, and what most coverage outside Africa has treated as a footnote, is that Russia’s shadow fleet has increasingly gone shopping for African flags. Cameroon’s ship registry grew by roughly 126 percent over the past year, driven in large part by the rapid listing of high-risk tankers tied to sanctioned Russian trade. Cameroon now ranks among the top three states associated with the shadow fleet, alongside Russia itself and Sierra Leone.
Cameroon is not alone. Registries in Benin, the Gambia, Comoros, Guinea and Sierra Leone have all seen sharp increases in registered tonnage as operators squeezed out of established flag states look for jurisdictions with weaker verification. The Toa Payoh’s own voyage traces that pattern almost exactly: it departed from Cotonou, a Beninese port, flying a Cameroonian flag it had picked up only the week before it was stopped.
Cameroonian authorities have acknowledged the problem is bigger than any single vessel. Facing EU pressure, Yaoundé has suspended new registrations for vessels operating outside its territorial waters, ordered an audit of its ship registry under the Prime Minister’s Office, and delisted dozens of vessels linked to the shadow fleet. Officials and maritime security researchers say the registry’s vulnerabilities go beyond simple negligence: some vessels are registered through opaque intermediaries who monetise the process without proper vetting, while others fraudulently claim the Cameroonian flag using stolen or forged digital documentation, sometimes with help from within the country’s own maritime administration.
WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
For Nigeria and its neighbours along the Gulf of Guinea, this is not simply a European sanctions story playing out far away. Every fraudulent or poorly vetted registration under a West or Central African flag carries reputational cost for legitimate shipping registered under the same flags, and it hands foreign navies justification to board vessels flying African colours in international waters. It also exposes how thin the region’s regulatory and monitoring capacity remains relative to the volume of tonnage now seeking cover under its registries.
The Toa Payoh’s captain resisting a boarding party in the Mediterranean is a dramatic image, but the more consequential failure happened earlier and closer to home: at the point of registration, where a tanker linked to a sanctioned network was able to obtain Cameroonian papers within days, and where its port of departure was a West African harbour rather than a Russian one. Until African maritime administrations close that gap, with better digital verification, tighter control over registration agents, and enforcement against forged documentation, vessels like the Toa Payoh will keep using African flags as the path of least resistance, and it will keep being European warships, not African regulators, providing the accountability.
Irini was launched in 2020 to enforce a UN arms embargo on Libya. EU governments have since widened its mandate to authorise these verification boardings, a mission creep that reflects how central the Mediterranean has become to enforcing sanctions that originate in European capitals but increasingly implicate African maritime sovereignty.
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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