Blue Economy
Dangote Targets Olokola for Africa’s Biggest, Deepest Seaport; Eyes Tanzania Port Deal
Dangote Targets Olokola for Africa’s Biggest, Deepest Seaport; Eyes Tanzania Port Deal
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News Correspondent, Lagos
Billionaire industrialist calls on African governments to open port sector to private capital as operational delays stifle trade
Africa’s richest man and President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that the proposed Olokola Port in Ogun State will be developed into the largest and deepest seaport on the African continent, with the project expected to break ground this year pending Federal Government approval.
Dangote made the disclosure on Monday on the sidelines of the Board of Directors meeting of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA) held in Lagos, where he also called for a fundamental shift in how African governments approach port infrastructure development — urging them to cede greater ownership and operational responsibility to private investors.
Private Sector as the Engine of Port Growth
The billionaire industrialist argued forcefully that port development across Africa has been held back by excessive reliance on government-led investment, insisting that private capital — not public funds — must now drive the sector’s transformation.
It is not really the job of governments to build and run ports alone,” he told journalists. “The private sector should create those investments, invest heavily, while governments focus on regulation and revenue collection.”
Dangote contended that persistent operational inefficiencies at ports across the continent — including prolonged vessel waiting times and chronic infrastructure gaps — were creating serious hardships for manufacturers and investors. He said these bottlenecks underscored the urgency of attracting private participation into maritime infrastructure.
“A lot of ports in Africa still face serious operational delays. Some vessels wait for days, and this is making business very difficult. One of the key recommendations I have made is that governments should encourage more private sector investment in port infrastructure,” he stated.
Olokola: A Continental Landmark in the Making
At the heart of Dangote’s maritime ambitions is the Olokola Port project, which he described as a transformational facility set to redefine cargo throughput, logistics efficiency and vessel handling capacity across West Africa and the continent at large.
“We announced that we are building the Olokola Port. We are going to build the largest and deepest seaport in Africa, and that will happen in Olokola,” Dangote affirmed.
He said the Dangote Group had finalised plans for the project and was awaiting regulatory clearance from the Federal Government before mobilising for construction. “We are hoping to start this year, if we get approval. As soon as we receive approval from the government, we will move ahead with the project,” he said.
Olokola, straddling the Ogun–Ondo boundary in southwestern Nigeria, has long been eyed as a deep-water port location given its natural harbour depth and proximity to the Atlantic shipping lane. A Dangote-backed facility at that site would significantly alter Nigeria’s port capacity map, potentially rivalling established West African deep-water competitors such as Lomé, Abidjan and Tema.
Tanzania Port Deal Also on the Table
Beyond Nigeria, Dangote confirmed that the group is simultaneously advancing a major port project in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, signalling the conglomerate’s intent to establish a continent-wide maritime infrastructure footprint.
He disclosed that talks with Tanzanian authorities were progressing well following a recent visit to the East African nation. “We are also working on another port in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. I just came back from there yesterday, and we are engaging with them. Once approvals come through, we will proceed,” he said.
Bagamoyo, located north of Dar es Salaam, has previously been identified as a strategic gateway for East African trade, with Chinese-backed infrastructure proposals having stalled in recent years. A Dangote entry into that market would mark a significant pivot toward Nigerian private capital competing at the continental level.
Port Infrastructure Now a Strategic Pillar for Dangote Group
Dangote indicated that port infrastructure would henceforth rank alongside cement, fertiliser, petrochemicals and logistics as a core pillar of the group’s continental growth strategy.
“Port infrastructure is now one of the key sectors for the Dangote Group, and we are going to pursue it aggressively,” he affirmed.
The PMAWCA Board of Directors meeting, which brought together port authority chiefs and maritime officials from West and Central Africa, provided the forum for Dangote’s remarks — lending regional weight to his advocacy for private-sector-led port reform at a moment when Nigeria’s own port concession framework faces fresh scrutiny.
Nigeria Watch: Analysis for terminal operators, freight forwarders, shipowners and regulatory stakeholders
Dangote’s Olokola announcement arrives at a politically charged moment for Nigeria’s port development landscape. The Federal Government’s port concession renewal process — covering key facilities at Apapa, Tin Can Island and other NPA-managed terminals — remains mired in uncertainty, with several existing concessionaires operating on expired or informally extended agreements while fresh terms are yet to be concluded.
Against that backdrop, the prospect of a privately-financed greenfield deep-water port at Olokola introduces a new competitive variable that terminal operators, cargo owners and shipping lines will be watching closely. If the facility delivers on Dangote’s ambition of being Africa’s largest and deepest, it would materially shift the calculus for vessel calls currently routed through Lekki Deep Sea Port — itself still ramping up — and could attract ultra-large container vessels currently bypassing Nigeria for more accommodating regional ports.
For freight forwarders and importers, the key question is timing. Dangote’s conditional language — “if we get approval” — is a familiar refrain in Nigerian port project announcements, and the history of Olokola itself is one of protracted delays dating back to earlier development proposals. Whether the Federal Government’s regulatory machinery can process approvals swiftly enough to keep the conglomerate’s 2026 groundbreaking target alive remains an open question.
What is clear is that the Dangote Group’s formal entry into port infrastructure — backed by the group’s demonstrated capacity to execute at scale in the Lekki refinery complex — gives this announcement considerably more credibility than previous Olokola proposals. Stakeholders across the value chain would do well to monitor NPA and Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy signals on approvals in the weeks ahead.
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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