Blue Economy
TWO YEARS ON: HOW MOBEREOLA IS RESHAPING NIMASA AND NIGERIA’S BLUE ECONOMY AMBITION
TWO YEARS ON: HOW MOBEREOLA IS RESHAPING NIMASA AND NIGERIA’S BLUE ECONOMY AMBITION
By Okeoghene Onoriobe | Waterways News Correspondent | Lagos
When Dr. Dayo Mobereola assumed the helm of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on March 22, 2024, he walked into an agency weighed down by training backlogs, regulatory gaps, and a global reputation tainted by piracy-era insurance penalties. Two years later, the picture looks strikingly different.
From an IMO Council seat to world-class security ratings from the United States Coast Guard, NIMASA under Mobereola has repositioned Nigeria not just as a West African maritime player, but as a credible voice in global maritime governance.
Dr. Dayo Mobereola Director General NIMASA
Seafarer Training Gets a Lifeline
The backlog in the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) was one of the agency’s most glaring failures before Mobereola’s arrival. He tackled it head-on. Over 235 cadets have since been dispatched to top maritime institutions in India and Greece for training as Licensed Deck and Engine Officers — a significant acceleration of a programme that had stalled for years.
In a symbolic but telling gesture, Mobereola personally attended the 2025 graduation ceremony of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN) — a first for a sitting NIMASA Director-General, and a signal of renewed institutional commitment to Nigeria’s seafarer pipeline.
The agency has also modernised its Certificates of Competency (CoC) verification process, bringing Nigeria in line with global STCW requirements and tightening the integrity of its seafarer licensing system.
IMO Council Victory: Nigeria Returns to the Table
The crown jewel of NIMASA’s two-year run is Nigeria’s election into Category C of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) Council for the 2026–2027 biennium — the country’s first return to the Council in over a decade.
The win, secured at the IMO General Assembly in London on November 28, 2025, came on the back of more than twelve months of diplomatic shuttling, stakeholder engagement, and sustained advocacy. Marine and Blue Economy Minister Dr. Adegboyega Oyetola, CON, who led the campaign, credited Nigeria’s reformed maritime security architecture and improvements in the Gulf of Guinea as decisive factors.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu formally commended NIMASA’s management, describing the outcome as a strong affirmation of Nigeria’s growing influence in international maritime affairs.
Digital Overhaul of Maritime Labour Administration
In June 2025, the Federal Government launched the Maritime Labour E-Platform at a Day of the Seafarer event in Port Harcourt. The platform — described by Minister Oyetola as transformative — consolidates the registration of seafarers, dockworkers, employers and other stakeholders under a single digital system, with biometric ID cards replacing paper-heavy processes.
“By centralising registration and issuing secure biometric ID cards, it cuts paperwork, speeds up processing, and gives us reliable real-time data,” said Jibril Abba, NIMASA’s Executive Director for Maritime Labour and Cabotage Services. “This helps us meet our obligations under the Maritime Labour Convention and boosts Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global Blue Economy.”
The platform fulfils NIMASA’s mandate under Section 27(1)(a) of the NIMASA Act 2007 and aligns the country with the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 — the so-called Seafarers’ Bill of Rights.
Operation Zero Tolerance: Enforcement with Teeth
Capacity-building without enforcement is half a policy. Mobereola demonstrated he understands this when NIMASA launched “Operation Zero Tolerance for Non-Compliance” in January 2026 — a targeted enforcement drive covering vessel registration, certifications, Cabotage compliance, ownership documentation, and fee payments.
The operation put all operators on notice: ship owners, oil companies, charterers, offshore installation operators and Free Trade Zone vessel operators were required to self-audit within a 30-day grace period. After that window closed, NIMASA made clear that vessel detention, monetary penalties, and denial of port clearance were the consequences for non-compliance.
“We urge all stakeholders to do their part so that together, we can build on the gains of previous regulatory achievements,” Mobereola stated.
Fighting the War Risk Insurance Premium
Perhaps no campaign better illustrates Mobereola’s international boldness than Nigeria’s push to be removed from war risk insurance (WRI) premium zones.
Nigeria has invested billions in maritime security. The Deep Blue Project has effectively ended piracy in Nigerian waters. Yet international insurers continue to classify Nigeria as high-risk — driving up shipping costs for Nigerian importers, and making Nigerian ports less competitive than they should be.
Under Minister Oyetola’s directive, Mobereola has taken Nigeria’s case directly to the world’s major shipping bodies: BIMCO, the International Chamber of Shipping, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO. He also met with Chatham House’s Africa Programme Director Dr. Alex Vines, who agreed to escalate the matter to the United Nations.
Stinne Taiger Ivø, Deputy Secretary General of BIMCO, acknowledged Nigeria’s progress and called on ship owners to push for lower premiums. Zhou Xianyong of INTERCARGO offered assurances of support. Most recently, NIMASA engaged a Danish delegation, strategically targeting Denmark due to its significant stake in Maersk Line — in a bid to get Maersk’s influence working in Nigeria’s favour.
Infrastructure Push: Shipyards, Floating Docks and PPP
November 2025 saw NIMASA accredit 27 shipyards for operation across Nigeria — a meaningful boost to domestic ship repair and maintenance capacity. Ongoing efforts to operationalise the N50 billion Modular Floating Dock at the agency’s Apapa base are expected to further strengthen Nigeria’s maritime infrastructure.
Recognising that government cannot carry this alone, Mobereola has actively championed the Public-Private Partnership model, engaging the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) to develop PPP frameworks that can attract both domestic and foreign investors.
Green Credentials: NIMASA at COP 30
NIMASA has also staked Nigeria’s claim as a leader in African maritime decarbonisation. At COP 30 in Belém, Brazil, the agency presented its Nigerian Maritime Continuous Emissions Monitoring System — a landmark tool developed in collaboration with University College London’s research group.
The journey started at COP 28, where NIMASA launched the call for an African Coalition on IMO emissions reduction; progressed at COP 29 with the presentation of a verifiable Nigerian maritime emissions inventory; and culminated at COP 30 with the formal unveiling of the monitoring system.
The IMO Secretary General’s representative, Roel Hoeders, commended NIMASA for deepening the continent’s conversation on maritime energy transition.
Seafarer Rights: Nigeria Leads at the ILO
On the international labour front, Mobereola has been equally vocal. At the 353rd session of the ILO Governing Body in Geneva in March 2025, he delivered a passionate address advocating for the formal designation of seafarers as key workers — a recognition that would guarantee their legal protection, priority access to healthcare, and fair labour conditions under the MLC 2006.
Domestically, NIMASA facilitated a Collective Bargaining Agreement in 2025 between the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and shipping companies, establishing a reviewed minimum wage framework and clearer working conditions.
Security Gains Earn Global Recognition
Nigeria’s maritime security transformation has drawn praise from unexpected quarters. Following assessment visits to Dangote Port, Lekki Free Trade Zone, and private facilities in Warri, the United States Coast Guard delivered a verdict that few in the industry anticipated.
“Nigeria’s compliance with the ISPS Code ranks amongst the best globally,” said Joe Prince Larson, who led the USCG assessment team.
The assessment is part of a three-year plan to support the lifting of the Condition of Entry placed on Nigeria-bound vessels heading to American ports — a development that would significantly open up Nigeria’s maritime trade lanes. Naval officers from 20 countries participating in the French-led Siren Course also made a special port call in Lagos to study NIMASA’s C4I Centre, with the French Defence Attaché calling the Navy-NIMASA partnership “a model worthy of study.”
CVFF Disbursement in Sight
The long-delayed Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) — a persistent frustration for indigenous shipowners — has shown new signs of life under Mobereola. In January 2026, NIMASA commissioned the CVFF Application Portal, and meaningful disbursement to Nigerian shipowners is now anticipated within 2026.
Combined with the 27 newly accredited shipyards, the developments are beginning to create an ecosystem where local operators can finance vessels and access domestic repair services — a crucial step toward genuine cabotage growth.
The Road Ahead
As NIMASA moves deeper into 2026, the foundations are in place. But the harder work — converting policy into commercial outcomes — lies ahead. The war risk insurance campaign must yield real premium reductions. The CVFF must translate into actual fleet expansion. The IMO Council seat must be leveraged. The Floating Dock must be operationalized.
What is already beyond dispute is that under Mobereola’s watch, NIMASA has moved from a reactive regulator struggling with compliance backlogs to a proactive institution earning commendations on the global stage. Whether the momentum holds will determine whether Nigeria’s maritime sector finally delivers on its longstanding promise as an engine of national development.
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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