Blue Economy
NSC Recovers N348.8m for Port Users in Q1 2026, Resolves 19 Disputes in Three Months
NSC Recovers N348.8m for Port Users in Q1 2026, Resolves 19 Disputes in Three Months
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News Reporter | May 13, 2026
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has delivered a significant financial reprieve to maritime stakeholders, recovering and saving a combined sum of N348,813,072.06 for port users across Nigeria during the first quarter of 2026 — a development that underscores the agency’s growing role as a frontline protector of commercial interests in the nation’s port ecosystem.
The figure, drawn from the Council’s Q1 2026 complaints and dispute resolution data, reflects recoveries and avoided losses facilitated on behalf of importers, exporters, freight forwarders, shipping agents, and a broad range of port-based businesses who turned to the NSC when commercial relationships broke down or charges went unresolved.
32 Complaints Filed, 19 Resolved
According to the Council’s quarterly report, a total of 32 complaints were received between January and March 2026. Of these, 19 cases were successfully resolved, with monetary remedies or corrective actions secured for the aggrieved parties. Twelve cases remain under active investigation, while one complaint was administratively closed.
The resolution rate — nearly 60 percent of all complaints handled in the quarter — points to the NSC’s capacity to intervene decisively in commercial disputes that would otherwise drag through informal channels or remain unresolved, leaving port users bearing unnecessary financial burdens.
For many small and medium-scale importers and exporters who lack the legal muscle to confront large shipping lines or terminal operators, the NSC’s intervention represents a crucial equaliser in an industry where power imbalances are common.
Shipping Companies Top Complaints List
The data reveals that shipping companies and their agents attracted the highest volume of complaints, accounting for 22 of the 32 cases filed in the period. This continues a pattern observed in previous quarters, where shipping lines remain the most frequently cited respondents in port-related disputes — a trend that industry watchers say reflects the dominance of these entities in determining freight rates, cargo documentation timelines, and demurrage policies.
Other respondents against whom complaints were filed included seaport terminal operators, government agencies, exporters, importers, de-consolidators, and freight forwarders and clearing agents — indicating that grievances span virtually every segment of the maritime trade chain.
Container Deposit Refunds, Arbitrary Charges Lead Dispute Categories
A breakdown of the nature of complaints filed in Q1 2026 reveals systemic issues that continue to plague the Nigerian port environment.
Container deposit refund disputes topped the list with five cases, a recurring problem in which shipping lines or their agents delay or refuse to return deposits paid by importers upon collection of empty containers. For businesses operating on tight margins, these withheld refunds — often running into hundreds of thousands of naira per container — can significantly disrupt cash flow.
Arbitrary charges followed closely with four cases. These involve fees that stakeholders describe as undocumented, inconsistently applied, or lacking regulatory backing — charges that, critics argue, are often levied without recourse and go unchallenged due to the complex, opaque nature of shipping documentation.
Other notable categories of complaints handled by the NSC during the quarter included:
- Unsettled demurrage — disputes over storage fees charged when containers are not cleared within the shipping line’s allotted free days, often linked to delays caused by port agencies rather than the cargo owner.
- Missing cargo — cases involving goods lost or misplaced in transit or at port terminals, with claimants seeking accountability and compensation from operators.
- Service failures — instances where shipping or terminal service providers failed to deliver agreed standards of cargo handling, documentation, or customer support.
- Damaged cargo — complaints from importers who received goods in compromised condition, seeking liability acknowledgement and redress.
- Wrong port of discharge — cases where containers were offloaded at ports other than those specified in the bill of lading, resulting in additional freight costs and logistical complications for the consignee.
- Non-release of auction cargo — grievances involving cargo that had been subjected to auction by relevant authorities but was yet to be formally released to rightful buyers or cleared parties.
The Council also handled complaints relating to delays in cargo transfer, invoice cancellation, breach of trust, export fraud, absence of telex release, delays in export documentation, waiver-related disputes, vessel demurrage, and breach of contract — a diverse portfolio that reflects the complex and often contentious commercial relationships that define Nigeria’s port trade.
Shippers Remain Most Vulnerable
The data reinforces a well-documented reality: that shippers — importers and exporters — bear the brunt of operational dysfunction in Nigeria’s ports. Alongside freight forwarders and shipping agents, they constitute the majority of complainants, underscoring the persistent commercial and operational pressures faced by the cargo-owning community.
Industry analysts note that many port users remain unaware of the NSC’s dispute resolution mandate or hesitate to file formal complaints, often settling for informal negotiations that tend to favour more powerful parties. The Council has in recent years intensified its stakeholder engagement efforts to widen awareness of its consumer protection role, but experts say much more sensitisation is needed — particularly among smaller traders and first-time importers who may not understand their rights under Nigeria’s shipping regulations.
NSC’s Mandate Under the Spotlight
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council was established to protect the commercial interests of cargo owners and to regulate economic activities in the shipping and port sector. Under the leadership of its Executive Secretary, Dr. Pius Akutah Ukeyima, the Council has sought to position itself as a more assertive regulator — one capable of compelling refunds, mediating disputes, and holding shipping lines and terminal operators accountable.
The Q1 2026 figures suggest that the agency’s dispute resolution architecture is delivering measurable results, even as the volume and complexity of port-related grievances continues to grow alongside the throughput ambitions of Nigeria’s increasingly busy seaports.
Port industry observers, however, caution that the N348.8 million recovered in three months is likely a fraction of the total financial losses that port users incur to arbitrary charges, service failures, and contractual breaches — many of which go unreported. Strengthening the NSC’s capacity to proactively investigate and sanction violators, rather than relying solely on complaints lodged by affected parties, is seen as the next frontier for the agency.
A Signal to the Market
The publication of this quarterly data sends an important signal to stakeholders across Nigeria’s maritime value chain: that there is a regulatory body actively monitoring the conduct of shipping lines, terminal operators, and other port service providers — and that aggrieved parties have a viable channel through which to seek redress.
For Waterways News readers — whether seasoned freight forwarders, clearing agents, vessel operators, or import/export businesses navigating Nigeria’s complex port landscape — the NSC’s Q1 2026 performance data serves as a timely reminder that the Council’s complaints desk remains open, and that the billions exchanged daily across Nigeria’s wharves are not beyond the reach of regulatory oversight.
Waterways News is Nigeria’s leading maritime industry publication, covering shipping, ports, inland waterways, and maritime trade.
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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