Blue Economy
Concession NIMASA’s Idle N50bn Floating Dockyard to Tantita Now, Tinubu Urged
Concession NIMASA’s Idle N50bn Floating Dockyard to Tantita Now, Tinubu Urged
Asset has drifted between Lagos facilities since 2016 without turning a bolt
A leading maritime industry voice has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to act decisively on one of Nigeria’s most expensive stranded assets — a modular floating dockyard valued at approximately N50 billion that has sat largely idle for nearly a decade.
Elder Asu Beks, Chief Executive Officer of Maritime Media Limited and Convener of the Maritime Industry Merit Awards (MIMA), made the call during a live interview on Arise TV on Tuesday, urging the Federal Government to concession the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)-owned facility to Tantita Security Services Limited.
Why should Nigeria allow an asset worth about N50 billion to waste away for over 10 years?”
A Dockyard That Has Never Docked Its Potential
The floating dockyard was originally acquired in 2016 and earmarked for deployment at Okerenkoko in Delta State, where it was intended to support training operations at the Nigerian Maritime University. Instead, the asset has been shuttled between the Naval Dockyard Limited, Continental Shipyard Limited, and most recently Snake Island in Lagos — never achieving full operational status at any of these locations. “Why should Nigeria allow an asset worth about N50 billion to waste away for over 10 years?” Beks asked pointedly.
Elder Asu Beks
Convener, Maritime Industry Merit Awards (MIMA)
He argued that continued government expenditure on maintaining an unproductive facility represents a compounding financial haemorrhage for the country — money flowing out with nothing flowing back.
Accountability for Successive Leadership
Beks did not spare NIMASA’s past leadership from scrutiny. He questioned why former Directors-General Dakuku Peterside and Bashir Jamoh allowed the matter to fester during their respective tenures without resolution.
He directed his sharpest call to action at the incumbent Director-General, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, urging him to break with precedent, take decisive action, and transform the dockyard from a liability into a productive national asset.
Why It Matters for Nigeria
Beks argued that reviving the floating dockyard would deliver strategic economic value on multiple fronts — strengthening Nigeria’s domestic ship repair capacity, reducing dependence on foreign yards, and supporting maritime skills development.
He stressed that substantive issues such as operationalizing the dockyard and establishing effective economic regulation in the shipping sector carry far greater consequence for Nigeria’s maritime future than symbolic milestones or ceremonial achievements.
The broader message was unambiguous: Nigeria must move from asset acquisition to asset utilisation if the maritime sector is to serve as a genuine engine of economic growth.
Nigeria Watch
The NIMASA floating dockyard saga is a microcosm of a wider challenge in Nigeria’s maritime infrastructure story — the gap between capital expenditure and operational delivery. With Nigeria spending heavily to reduce its dependence on foreign ship repair facilities, a N50 billion asset drifting between Lagos berths without turning a bolt is an uncomfortable contradiction. The call to concession it to Tantita — a company already embedded in Nigeria’s maritime security landscape — raises its own questions about concentration of strategic assets, but the underlying argument is hard to dismiss: idle infrastructure helps no one. NIMASA’s new leadership under Dr. Mobereola faces an early credibility test. How he handles the dockyard question will signal much about the direction of the agency under his watch.
By Okeoghene Onoriobe, Waterways News Correspondent, Lagos