Blue Economy
NSC Board Visits APM Terminals Apapa, Cites $600m Investment Pledge as Boost for Nigeria’s Trade Ambitions
NSC Board Visits APM Terminals Apapa, Cites $600m Investment Pledge as Boost for Nigeria’s Trade Ambitions
Regulator points to 30% export cargo growth, digital transformation as signs of maturing port ecosystem
By Ighoyota Onaibre| Waterways News
The Governing Board of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has declared APM Terminals Apapa a benchmark for port operations in Nigeria, following a familiarisation visit to the Apapa facility that laid bare both the terminal’s progress and the regulator’s broader vision for the country’s port sector.
Leading the delegation, NSC Board Chairman Dr Ibrahim Shehu Shema used the occasion to reaffirm the Council’s commitment to its mandate as Nigeria’s port economic regulator, stressing that cross-sector collaboration remains the cornerstone of building a truly competitive maritime ecosystem.
“Most of what I have seen on this visit is quite impressive,” Shema said. “The way the organisations involve their stakeholders is commendable. It shows that government is very serious about generating revenue for this country through this sector, and there is no doubt that foreign investors are interested in committing even more resources.”
He said the Council would continue deepening engagement with terminal operators, shipping lines and shippers to position Nigeria as the dominant maritime hub for West and Central Africa — a goal he tied to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
Akutah: Export Growth and Dangote Refinery Signal a Trade Rebalancing
NSC Executive Secretary and CEO Dr Pius Akutah struck an optimistic tone on the trade balance question — long a structural concern in Nigerian maritime circles. He disclosed that export cargo volumes at APM Terminals Apapa have grown by approximately 30 per cent, calling the figure a harbinger of change.
“For too long, the country has operated largely as an importing nation, resulting in persistent deficits in the balance of payments,” Akutah said. “This gives us optimism that, in the coming years, Nigeria will achieve a more balanced trade position.”
He acknowledged that exports remain predominantly commodity-based, but identified the Dangote Refinery’s emerging petroleum product exports and the opportunities unlocked by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as catalysts for a more diversified export profile.
“With the Dangote Refinery now exporting petroleum products, we expect further progress. The manufacturing sector holds strong potential, particularly under AfCFTA, which provides a unified platform for trade across the continent. We are confident that Nigeria will soon expand its footprint in exporting manufactured goods across Africa,” he said.
On regulatory oversight, Akutah noted that many terminal operators are aligning with NSC directives to modernise facilities and embrace technology — progress he described as consistent with the vision of the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, CON.
$600m Reinvestment Proposal Described as a Vote of Confidence
Perhaps the most consequential disclosure of the visit came from Akutah’s confirmation that APM Terminals has tabled a proposal to invest an additional $600 million in its Nigerian operations — a commitment the NSC chief described as a strong signal of investor confidence at a time the Federal Government is actively courting foreign direct investment.
“At a time when the Federal Government is actively seeking foreign direct investment, it is reassuring to see companies already operating in Nigeria reinvesting and expanding their commitments,” Akutah said. “It is truly heartening and signals a promising period for the country.”
Terminal MD Points to Digital Overhaul
APM Terminals Apapa Managing Director Kamal Alhraishat used the occasion to highlight the terminal’s shift to electronic data interchange (EDI) systems — replacing manual, paper-based processes with digital platforms that enable the seamless exchange of standardised trade documents including invoices, bills of lading and cargo status updates.
“By eliminating paper-based processes, we have enhanced both efficiency and accuracy, while ensuring faster and more transparent communication between the terminal, shipping lines and shippers,”
Alhraishat said, adding that the company remains committed to ongoing infrastructure investment and technological innovation in support of Nigeria’s trade ambitions.
Nigeria Watch
The NSC board visit to APM Terminals Apapa carries more than ceremonial weight. It comes at a pivotal moment in the concession reform cycle, with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) still navigating the concession renewal process for several terminals — a process in which operator performance benchmarks will be central.
APM Terminals Apapa’s reported 30 per cent export cargo growth is a metric worth watching closely. It corroborates narratives around the Dangote Refinery’s impact on Nigeria’s outbound freight market, and hints at a structural shift in the cargo mix at Apapa that regulators and terminal planners will need to account for.
The $600 million reinvestment proposal, if formalised, would represent one of the largest single private commitments to Nigerian port infrastructure in recent memory — and would significantly strengthen the case for Apapa’s continued relevance against the growing competitive pressure from the Lekki Deep Sea Port.
For the NSC, the visit reinforces its posture as an active regulator — one that is auditing performance, not merely adjudicating disputes. That positioning, amplified by Executive Secretary Akutah’s references to the AfCFTA and export diversification, suggests the Council is sharpening its strategic framing ahead of what promises to be a consequential season of port sector policy decisions.
Waterways News | Maritime | Ports | Blue Economy
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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