FG courts investors in marine and blue economy with 10-year blueprint

Plan includes port upgrades, national shipping carrier

The Federal Government is seeking to attract private sector investment into the country’s marine and blue economy, and it believes its decade-long policy framework will bring the desired results. 

Adegboyega Oyetola, the minister of Marine and Blue Economy, at a stakeholder meeting in Lagos,  said the policy, which was earlier approved by the Federal Executive Council, covers all pain points including port upgrades, maritime security, aquaculture, inland waterways, ocean governance, and coastal tourism.

“These interventions are designed to reduce delays, boost investor confidence, and reposition Nigeria as a regional maritime hub,” Oyetola said.

According to the minister, contracts have been approved for the reconstruction of Apapa and Tin Can Island ports under the Western Port Rehabilitation Programme, with procurement ongoing for similar works in the Eastern corridor. 

The contract was awarded to ITB Nigeria, a construction company owned by Gilbert Chagoury, a Lebanese-Nigerian businessman with close ties to President Bola Tinubu, according to earlier reports.

The minister noted that the upgrades are being paired with digital tools such as the Port Community System and a unified one-stop port clearance platform to ease cargo movement and reduce turnaround time.

The government is also pushing to revive Nigeria’s national shipping carrier under a public-private partnership model. Preparatory work has already begun for the disbursement of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund by NIMASA to support indigenous shipowners, an in

Nigeria is leading efforts to operationalise the Regional Maritime Development Bank (RMDB) under Maritime Organisation for West and Central Africa (MOWCA), which will be headquartered in Abuja and offer long-term funding for maritime infrastructure across the region.

Recently, a financing deal worth $150 million was in the works by the bank for the upgrade and expansion of a major shipyard in Nigeria. The deal was confirmed by Adeniran Aderogba, the president and CEO of the RMDB, which finally took off in May, sixteen years after conception.

As his sign of expected success, Oyetola announced that the ministry had recorded a 75 percent performance score in 2024 according to a review conducted by the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Policy and Coordination and recorded zero piracy in the last three years through the Deep Blue Project

“Investment opportunities are expanding in bonded terminals, dry ports, inland logistics corridors, and warehousing infrastructure,” Oyetola said.

But he also said that implementation must be collaborative, data-driven, and anchored on citizen engagement.

All these efforts come as Nigeria makes a renewed bid for a Category C seat on the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council for stronger voice in global maritime governance.

But Oyetola is poised. He reiterated that the transition to a sustainable blue economy model “requires innovation, investment, policy coherence, and human capital development.”

“We’re not just opening up the sector, we’re building a framework for sustained investor engagement,” he said.