Blue Economy
Stakeholders, Industry Leaders Tip Women to Drive Africa’s $300bn Blue Economy at WISTA Regional Conference
Stakeholders, Industry Leaders Tip Women to Drive Africa’s $300bn Blue Economy at WISTA Regional Conference
By Ighoyota Onaibre | Waterways News
The Federal Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, and leading maritime stakeholders have called on women to take the lead in translating Africa’s blue economy policies into concrete economic outcomes, describing female inclusion as a strategic imperative rather than a peripheral agenda item.
The call came at the two-day Regional Conference of the Women in Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA) Nigeria, held in Lagos on Friday. The event, themed “From Policy to Implementation: Women Advancing Africa’s Blue Economy through Sustainable Shipping, Trade and Energy Innovation,” attracted policymakers, regulators and maritime professionals from across Africa and beyond.
Oyetola, represented by Hajia Kaltum Ibrahim, Director of Planning, Research and Statistics at the ministry, told delegates that the sector’s enormous potential could only be realised through effective policy implementation and deeper stakeholder collaboration. He said the ministry had developed a comprehensive National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy to guide sustainable development, and stressed that strategic public-private partnerships remained critical to attracting investment, driving innovation and expanding infrastructure across the maritime value chain.
The minister urged participants to move beyond policy discussions and deliver practical outcomes, noting that sustainable growth required the active participation of women and youth across shipping, logistics, fisheries, renewable energy and marine services.
The Oniru of Iruland, Oba Abdulwasiu Lawal, described Lagos as Africa’s pre-eminent maritime gateway and an appropriate setting for such conversations. He said women’s leadership had become a business necessity, and renewed his call for the establishment of a Lagos Coastal Community Development Corporation to advance inclusive coastal development.
Delivering the keynote address, former NIMASA Director-General Dr Dakuku Peterside identified poor implementation — not inadequate policy — as Africa’s overriding maritime challenge. He said frameworks such as the African Maritime Transport Charter and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) had yet to translate into improved port efficiency, fleet growth or stronger intra-African trade.
Peterside drew a sharp contrast between Morocco’s average vessel turnaround time of two days and Nigeria’s minimum of seven days, warning that port inefficiencies drive up business costs and erode competitiveness. He called on African states to leverage the global net-zero transition to attract green finance, develop local shipbuilding capacity, modernise ports and build efficient logistics corridors.
“Signature is not a shipyard. Convention is not capacity. Policy is not fleet. If we sign without building, we become spectators,” he said.
NIMASA Director-General Dr Dayo Mobereola said Africa’s blue economy, valued at more than $300 billion annually, could not reach its full potential without greater gender inclusion. He noted that while maritime transport accounts for around 90 per cent of global trade by volume, women represent only 29 per cent of the global maritime workforce and under two per cent of seafarers. He urged governments and industry operators to prioritise human capital development, institutional reforms and innovation.
Lagos State House of Assembly Deputy Speaker, Hon. Mojisola Meranda, citing the 2024 IMO-WISTA Survey, said women constitute less than 19 per cent of the global maritime workforce and only one per cent of seafarers worldwide. She called for sustained investment in training, mentorship, financing and policy frameworks to expand women’s access to both leadership and technical roles.
A former WISTA Nigeria President, Chief Jean Anishere, advocated harmonised environmental and port regulations across Africa to reduce compliance costs and attract investment, while also pushing for policies supporting shore power facilities, alternative fuel bunkering and smart port technologies.
WISTA Nigeria President Dr Odunayo Ani noted that the association, the first national WISTA body on the African continent, now 32 years old — had consistently championed mentorship, advocacy and professional development. She said the establishment of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy reflected Nigeria’s commitment to harnessing its marine resources for economic growth and job creation.
Nigeria Watch
The WISTA Lagos conference has surfaced a tension that Waterways News has long observed in Nigeria’s maritime governance: the gap between policy ambition and operational reality. Dr Peterside’s remarks about Morocco’s two-day turnaround against Nigeria’s seven-day minimum were blunt and accurate. This is not a new finding as it has been documented in every competitiveness audit of Nigerian ports for the better part of a decade, but the fact that it is being restated at a flagship sectoral conference in 2026 is itself instructive.
Nigeria’s port dwell times remain a structural handicap. The Electronic Call-Up System at Apapa has improved gate management but has not fundamentally resolved cargo clearance bottlenecks driven by multiple agency overlaps, demurrage disputes and the persistent harassment of transporters along the corridor. Until those systemic issues are resolved, the blue economy framework risks becoming another layer of policy architecture built atop an unreformed port system.
The gender data presented by NIMASA DG Mobereola and Deputy Speaker Meranda, to the effect that less than two per cent of global seafarers are women, and even one per cent in some surveys, is striking but not entirely surprising in Nigeria’s context. The country’s seafarer pipeline faces structural constraints that affect male and female candidates alike: the cost of STCW certification, gaps in flag state examination access outside Lagos, and the unresolved CVFF disbursement machinery that was meant to build Nigerian tonnage and crew capacity. Any serious programme to advance women’s participation in Nigerian shipping must address these bottlenecks head-on, not simply as gender-specific barriers but as systemic failures.
What WISTA Nigeria has done well for 32 years is maintain institutional continuity and professional visibility for women in a sector that has not always made space for them. The conference’s convening power of bringing regulators, royalty and international maritime professionals to Lagos, is its own form of soft influence. The harder question, which Peterside posed directly, is what happens between now and the next conference. That answer will be found not in Lagos conference halls but in port offices, seafarer training centres, cabotage implementation desks and the corridors of the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy.
Waterways News | www.waterwaysnews.ng
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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