Blue Economy
SWAAADO Throws Weight Behind NIWA-Parts Central Clean-Up, Deploys Waterways Directory as Watchdog
SWAAADO Throws Weight Behind NIWA-Parts Central Clean-Up, Deploys Waterways Directory as Watchdog
By Oghenewoke Osaweren | Waterways News
The Sustainable Waterways Awareness, Advancement and Advocacy Organization (SWAAADO) has pledged its full support for the newly launched Inland Waterways Clean-Up Initiative, promising to deploy its Nigerian Waterways Directory as a public accountability tool to track the programme’s progress across the nation’s creeks, rivers and lagoons.
Chief Raymond Gold, Head of Desk, Corporate Communication and Strategy at SWAAADO, disclosed this while addressing stakeholders at the Waterways Clean-Up Stakeholders Forum held on August 18, 2026, in Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
Chief Raymond Gold, Head of Desk Corporate Communications and Strategy at SWAAADO, delivering his remarks at the unveiling ceremony
The initiative, driven by the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) in partnership with Parts Central Limited, was described by Gold as a defining intervention against decades of neglect that have left Nigeria’s inland waterways burdened by household refuse, water hyacinth infestation and oil spillage.
Speaking before NIWA’s Lagos Area Manager, Engr. Sarat Braimah; Parts Central Limited Managing Director, Mr. Henry Olaoluwa Onifade; and representatives of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Gold said the clean-up effort was a statement that Nigeria’s inland waterways would no longer be treated as an afterthought but as the national asset they truly are.
He credited the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, with repositioning the nation’s waterways as central to the Renewed Hope Agenda’s diversification and job-creation goals of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, noting that the ministry has pushed for the replacement of unsafe wooden boats, distribution of life jackets and stronger safety enforcement across inland waterways. Environmental restoration, he argued, is a precondition for and not a distraction fromy blue economy investment.
A cross section of guests including Baales and other leaders of waterfront communities from different parts of Lagos state at the unveiling ceremony
Gold also commended NIWA for handing strategic oversight of the clean-up to Parts Central Limited, calling the arrangement a structured, multi-stakeholder model built to tackle pollution at its source, restore navigability, protect aquatic biodiversity and convert waste into economic opportunity for riverine communities.
Outlining SWAAADO’s role, Gold said the organisation being a sister entity to Waterways Integrated Synergy Limited and Waterways News, would act as an advocacy and community-engagement partner to the initiative rather than a passive observer. Central to that role is the Nigerian Waterways Directory www.nigeriawaterwaysdirectory.com, which SWAAADO will use to maintain a public, location-tagged record of clean-up activity across every zone the initiative reaches, from Lagos creeks to the Niger-Benue confluence and the creeks of the Niger Delta.
Chief Gold of SWAAADO (r), MD of Parts Central Ltd (m) and staff of Parts Central at the unveiling ceremony on Tuesday
According to Gold, the Directory will amplify the voices of boat operators, fishing communities and waterfront dwellers, map the waste-to-wealth value chain built around the clean-up, and formally recognise operators and communities that adopt safer, cleaner practices.
“Where Waterways News tells the story as it unfolds, the Nigerian Waterways Directory www.nigeriawaterwaysdirectory.com ensures the story does not disappear once the cameras leave,” Gold told the forum, describing the Directory as SWAAADO’s instrument of accountability.
He closed with a call on government agencies, private operators, host communities, environmental groups and development partners to sustain the momentum beyond the Lekki unveiling, warning that the initiative’s real test lies in whether it becomes a nationwide movement or fades into another short-lived exercise. Stakeholder participation, he urged, must be captured in the Directory “so that this movement is not just felt, but documented for the record.”
Nigeria Watch
SWAAADO’s intervention lands at a moment when the NIWA-Parts Central partnership is drawing national attention beyond Lagos. The clean-up, conceived under former NIWA Managing Director Bola Oyebamiji before his exit to contest the Osun State governorship on the APC platform, has been variously described in official statements as a ten-year, renewable programme targeting jetties, landing ports, waterfront facilities and tank farms nationwide, with Lagos serving as the pilot before extension to other states.
That scale is precisely what makes SWAAADO’s accountability pitch relevant to the grassroots operator associations Waterways News regularly engages, WABOTAN and ATBOWATON. These groups have long argued that federal maritime announcements tend to fade at the point of implementation, particularly in riverine communities far from Lagos and Abuja press briefings. A location-tagged public directory, if sustained, would give such communities and cooperative boat associations like those under WABOTAN, a mechanism to independently verify whether promised waste-to-wealth jobs, refuse bins, and “mother bin” jetty facilities materialise on their stretch of water, rather than only in the pilot zones.
The initiative also intersects with NIWA’s long-running jurisdictional relationship with the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), since the Lagos leg of the clean-up depends on cooperation between federal regulatory oversight and state waterfront infrastructure agencies. Any friction in that coordination, a recurring theme in Nigeria’s inland waterways governance since the 2024–2025 Supreme Court rulings on NIWA-LASWA jurisdiction, could shape how quickly the clean-up’s stated navigability and safety gains are felt by operators.
For NIMASA, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, the initiative offers a low-cost, high-visibility contribution to the blue economy agenda that Minister Oyetola has championed. But the accountability question SWAAADO has raised, whether this becomes a nationwide movement or another short-lived exercise, echoes concerns Waterways News has tracked around other flagship interventions, including the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund and the Omi-Eko electric ferry rollout: that policy announcements in Nigeria’s maritime sector often outpace their delivery to the smaller operators and waterfront communities they are meant to serve.
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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