Blue Economy
CVFF at 23: Nigeria’s Ship Owners Still Counting Ceremonies, Not Vessels
CVFF at 23: Nigeria’s Ship Owners Still Counting Ceremonies, Not Vessels
Two decades of contributions, a flurry of directives, forums and portal launches — but no single kobo has left the vault. As Presidential approval is again cited, stakeholders are asking: will this time be different?
By Emetena Ikuku | Waterways News Maritime Desk
For twenty-three years, Nigerian ship owners have paid into the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund. For twenty-three years, they have been told disbursement is imminent. Today, the fund remains undisbursed — and the maritime industry has grown weary of applauding the machinery of process rather than the delivery of capital.
The latest chapter in this drawn-out saga unfolded in April 2025, when Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, directed the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to commence immediate disbursement of the long-embattled CVFF. NIMASA responded by issuing a Marine Notice inviting eligible indigenous shipping companies to submit applications, with qualified operators able to access up to $25 million each. The notice carried a tone of urgency. After years of false dawns — including a 2024 directive from the same minister citing Presidential designation of the CVFF as a key performance indicator for his ministry — industry stakeholders allowed themselves to feel optimistic.
A month later, in May 2025, NIMASA convened a one-day interactive forum at which the minister spoke of transparency mechanisms, a dedicated Cabotage Secretariat Unit, and partnerships with twelve Primary Lending Institutions. The expectation was almost palpable: the jinx, it seemed, had finally been broken.
It had not.
Another Ceremony, Another Threshold
On 22 January 2026, what the industry received was not a disbursement — it was another launch. At the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, an elaborate ceremony marked the unveiling of an online application portal. Senators, House of Representatives members, shipping company executives, maritime lawyers, agency heads and ministry officials were in attendance. Speeches were made. Officials rehearsed the familiar catalogue of benefits that CVFF disbursement would deliver — indigenous capacity growth, vessel acquisition, job creation, GDP contribution. Lawmakers congratulated NIMASA and the minister. Even maritime lawyers joined the chorus of commendation.
What was absent was any announcement of a beneficiary, a signed loan agreement, or a drawdown date.
The portal, while not without utility as an administrative tool, arrived at a moment when observers had every reason to believe disbursement had already commenced. Industry watchers who had followed proceedings through 2025 were not expecting to celebrate the beginning of an application process — they were expecting to hear of vessels being financed.
The Cost of Ceremony
Beyond the optics of process over outcome, a harder question hangs over the January launch: how much did it cost to unveil a digital portal? Flights and accommodation for invited senators and dignitaries, venue hire and production at one of Lagos’s premier hotel venues, LED screens, stage and lighting, catering, security, media coverage, consultancy and logistics — each line item may appear routine in isolation. Together, analysts note, they could rival the capital outlay for maritime training infrastructure or auxiliary vessel equipment.
A portal of the nature launched could plausibly have been built and publicised for well under N2 million. The ceremony around it almost certainly cost a multiple of that figure. In a sector crying out for capital, the allocation of scarce resources to spectacle over substance invites legitimate scrutiny.
The Structural Problem a Portal Cannot Solve
NIMASA’s Director-General has been explicit that submission of an application through the portal does not guarantee disbursement. This is an important admission, because it locates the real obstacle precisely where it has always been: not in the absence of a digital gateway, but in the structural conditions that have historically prevented approved applicants from actually receiving funds.
Bank lending appetite, eligibility criteria that shift with political priorities, approval timelines, and the sheer inertia of bureaucratic process — these are the walls that an application portal does not demolish. If Nigerian ship owners navigate a sleek digital interface only to encounter the same institutional blockages downstream, technology will have succeeded only in modernising disappointment.
What indigenous operators need is not another threshold to cross. They need certainty: that banks will lend, that criteria will remain stable, that approvals will be timely, and that funds will physically transfer.
Presidential Approval — Again
At the time of writing, it has been announced that Presidential approval for CVFF disbursement has been secured, and that NIMASA is preparing to disburse to sixty applicants who have registered interest through the portal. The announcement has been received by stakeholders with the circumspect caution of people who have been here before — not dismissal, but a measured wait-and-see that reflects the fund’s long history of near-misses.
The question the industry is asking is not whether the announcement is well-intentioned. It is whether, this time, the outcome will match the declaration.
Nigeria Watch
The CVFF was established under the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act of 2003 to provide concessionary financing for Nigerian shipping companies to acquire vessels and compete in domestic waters. Over two decades, the fund has accumulated levy contributions from foreign shipping operators engaged in Nigerian cabotage trades — a pool now estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars.
Repeated failure to disburse has meant that the fund’s intended purpose — growing an indigenous fleet capable of displacing foreign operators in Nigerian coastal and inland trade — remains largely unrealised. Nigeria’s flag carrier ambitions, currently being pursued through the AD Ports Group and DP World partnership frameworks, sit alongside a CVFF that has yet to finance a single verified vessel acquisition at scale.
For NIMASA DG Dayo Mobereola, whose agency has staked significant institutional credibility on this disbursement cycle, the coming weeks will be definitive. For Minister Oyetola, the CVFF remains a litmus test for whether the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy can translate maritime policy ambition into measurable fleet development outcomes.
Twenty-three years after contributions began, the industry is not asking for another milestone in the process. It is asking for vessels in the water.
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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