Blue Economy
NIGERIA’S WATERWAY GETS A CLEAN-UP PLAN — BUT WHO WILL MAKE POLLUTERS PAY?
NIGERIA’S WATERWAY GETS A CLEAN-UP PLAN — BUT WHO WILL MAKE POLLUTERS PAY?
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterways News
The National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) has formally rolled out a nationwide clean-up of the country’s inland waterways, unveiling Parts Central Limited as its implementation partner at a stakeholder event in Lagos on Tuesday. But behind the launch-day optimism sits a harder question: will Nigeria finally punish the dredgers, tank farm owners and waterfront developers who have turned stretches of the Lagos waterways black, or will this become another environmental initiative that dies with a change of NIWA leadership?
NIWA Lagos Area Manager, Engr. Sarat Braimah giving her opening remarks at the event
THE POLITICS BEHIND THE PARTNERSHIP
The clean-up programme was not born on Tuesday. It was conceived under NIWA’s immediate past Managing Director, Bola Oyebamiji, who resigned from the agency’s top job to become the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in the just concluded Osun State governorship elections. That timeline matters. Nigeria has a long history of federal agency initiatives that stall the moment their political sponsor moves on to the next office. The real test of Tuesday’s Lagos unveiling isn’t the ribbon-cutting, it’s whether NIWA’s current leadership led by Acting MD, Alhaji Girei, can institutionalize a programme it inherited.
NAMING THE POLLUTERS, NOT JUST THE PROBLEM
What distinguished Tuesday’s event from the usual generic “let’s keep our waters clean” messaging was Braimah’s willingness to name names. She pointed directly at dredgers, tank farm operators, boat operators and waterfront owners as the primary sources of the waste choking Nigeria’s inland waterways. These include licensed commercial operators who have no waste bins in their boats and waterfront residents who have simply refused to install soak-aways or manage their waste responsibly. Kirikiri, she noted, is now the dirtiest stretch of inland waterway in the country because tank farm owners routinely empty waste directly into the water.
Dignitaries at the event on Tuesday
This is a rare admission from a regulator: the pollution crisis is not primarily a public littering problem, it is a corporate compliance failure. If NIWA is serious about that framing, the clean-up initiative cannot succeed on refuse bins and landing pods alone. It needs enforcement teeth against operators who currently treat the waterways as a free dumping ground.
WHAT PARTS CENTRAL IS ACTUALLY PROMISING
Parts Central’s Managing Director, Henry Olaoluwa Onifade, laid out the operational side: passenger-approved waste bins on every boat and watercraft, “mother bins” at every jetty for offloading waste on docking, and technology to monitor waterfronts across the network. According to NIWA’s own account of the programme, the initiative is also designed to convert recovered waste into economic value, plastic recycling chief among them, rather than simply removing it and burying the problem elsewhere.
Parts Central Limited, the implementation partner of this initiative is expected to roll out methods of enforcement against operators who are polluting the country’s inland waterways.
MD of Parts Central Ltd, Hon Henry Onifade (c), staff of Parts Central and Head of Desk Corporate Communications and Strategy at SWAAADO, Chief Raymond Gold, 1st from right, pose for a photograph after the event on Tuesday
That waste-to-value model is where the initiative’s real credibility will be judged. Nigeria already has associations and grassroots operators working plastic recovery angles along the Lagos waterways; whether Parts Central’s rollout coordinates with that existing ecosystem, or duplicates and displaces it, will shape how quickly the programme gains buy-in from operators who have heard clean-up promises before.
BLUE ECONOMY RHETORIC MEETS WATERFRONT REALITY
Braimah’s framing of Lagos as the proving ground for a “blue economy”, where a third of the state’s landmass is water, and that water is central to jobs, trade and youth engagement, echoes the Federal Government’s broader marine and blue economy agenda under Minister Adegboyega Oyetola. But blue economy talk has circulated in Nigerian policy circles for years without translating into the basic infrastructure this launch is now proposing: soak-aways, waste bins, and regulatory follow-through against violators.
Management and staff of NIWA Lagos Area office, MD and staff of Parts Central Ltd pose for a photograph with Baales of waterfront communities from different parts of Lagos State after the event on Tuesday
The comparison Braimah drew — Lagos’s blackish waterways against the blue waters of “saner climes”, is not just a color observation. It is an indictment of decades of regulatory tolerance for waterfront pollution across Nigeria’s port cities, from Lagos to Warri to Port Harcourt, where tank farms and dredging operations have operated with minimal environmental accountability.
WHAT COMES NEXT
NIWA says the Lagos rollout is the pilot for a nationwide expansion. Whether that expansion happens will depend less on Tuesday’s speeches than on whether waterfront owners, dredgers and tank farm operators actually change behaviour, and whether NIWA is willing to move from persuasion to enforcement against those who don’t. For now, the regulatory agency has confirmed what waterway communities have said for years: the waste in Nigeria’s inland waterways has an address, and Tuesday’s event named it.
All eyes are on Parts Central Ltd, the implementation partner, to get to work and stakeholders will follow.
Nigeria Watch
The headline from Tuesday’s unveiling isn’t just the partnership. Nigeria has seen NIWA announce contractors and clean-up drives before. But the attraction this time is that a sitting NIWA official stood in front of stakeholders and said the plainest thing anyone in Nigerian maritime regulation has said in years: the waste choking Lagos’s waterways isn’t just coming from ordinary residents. It’s also coming from licensed, revenue-generating operators including tank farms, dredgers, and waterfront developers who have simply never been made to pay for the mess they create.
That’s a different admission than the one Nigerians usually get from federal agencies. It’s not “we need more public awareness.” It’s “we know exactly whose waste this is, and we’ve let them get away with it.” If NIWA is prepared to stand by that framing, then bins on boats and mother bins at jetties are not the test of this programme. The test is whether NIWA follows Braimah’s naming of names with actual sanctions, fines, licence conditions and revoked concessions against the tank farm and dredging operators she just accused, on the record, of turning Kirikiri into the dirtiest stretch of water in the country.
There is also the leadership-continuity question that Nigerian public agencies rarely survive intact. This programme was built under Oyebamiji, who resigned to run for governorship of Osun state, It is being delivered by a different set of hands. That is precisely the handoff point where Nigerian federal initiatives have historically stalled, not from lack of ambition at launch, but from lack of institutional memory once the political sponsor moves on. NIWA new leadership inherited this clean-up; it did not author it. Whether the new leadership owns it with the same conviction as it’s predecessor, over years rather than weeks, is the real marker of whether this becomes policy or photo-op.
Then there’s the waste-to-value promise, plastic recycling, economic reuse, community jobs. Nigeria’s blue economy conversations have leaned on this language for years without much to show for it structurally. Lagos’s waterways already have informal operators and associations working plastic recovery on their own initiative, without NIWA or Parts Central. Whether this new programme plugs into that existing ecosystem or steamrolls past it will determine how fast it earns buy-in from communities who have watched clean-up pledges arrive and disappear before.
None of this is new to readers of this publication. The pattern is the same one we’ve tracked across CVFF disbursement, NIWA-LASWA jurisdictional friction, and NPERA’s slow build toward enforcement: Nigeria’s maritime sector is not short on announcements. It is short on the follow-through that turns an announcement into an operating reality. NIWA has now put a name and an address on its polluters. The Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, NIWA’s own leadership and Parts Central Limited should be judged not on Tuesday’s speeches but on whether Kirikiri’s water is measurably different a year from now.
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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