By Tekena Amieyeofori
Since his election in May 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has prioritised the upgrade of Nigeria’s seaports to fully harness the nation’s vast marine potential for economic recovery. For the first time in over 15 years, the Tinubu administration has approved the rehabilitation of ports outside the Lagos corridor. Yet, stakeholders in the maritime sector continue to raise concerns about a persistent imbalance in port rehabilitation and development, a situation that leaves several ports in the Niger Delta inactive.
In this special report, Tekena Amieyeofori, our Reporter-at-large, engages Amb. Boladei Godknows Igali, National Chairman of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, and former Nigeria’s Ambassador to Sweden, on the moribund state of seaports in the Niger Delta.
In August 2018, The Punch reported how Mr. Udo, a Calabar importer, met his tragic end in a ghastly road accident on the Benin-Ore Road. He was accompanying a trailer transporting his goods from Lagos to his warehouse in Calabar, where a moribund seaport lies fallow in his backyard to this day.
Mr. Udo’s story is one of many tragedies suffered by importers whose goods must travel over 700km from Lagos to the Niger Delta and South-Eastern states, a journey of more than 12 gruelling hours along roads that have become death traps. These perilous trips underscore the urgent need to revive the long-abandoned yet commercially viable seaports in Nigeria’s eastern corridor.
Seaports are the primary arteries of economic growth, connecting landlocked hinterlands to global markets. They serve as international trade gateways; the critical points where raw materials are imported and finished goods are exported.
According to the United Nations Trade and Development agency UNCTAD, the maritime sector is the backbone of the world economy, facilitating over 80 per cent of global merchandise trade by volume. In 2025 alone, UNCTAD reported that the maritime sector facilitated nearly $2.3 trillion in ocean trade. For developing economies with vast marine potential like Nigeria, the blue economy remains low-hanging fruit.
The colonial administration understood the strategic economic importance of seaports and built Nigeria’s first modern port in Port Harcourt in 1912. To expand international trade, it subsequently commenced the building of Apapa Port in 1913.
This laid the foundation for Tin Can Port, and later Onne, Warri, and Calabar ports under post-colonial administrations. But both the Port Harcourt Port and those that followed were, in due course, neglected.
Economic Costs of Lopsided Ports Development
Amb. Igali, a former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and one-time Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, has deep institutional memory of Nigeria’s development history. As he settled to speak in his Maitama office, frustration was written across his face.
Tracing the history, he recalled that the neglect of idle seaports outside Lagos including Port Harcourt, Warri, and Calabar began with the onset of the civil war, largely due to security concerns. In the heat of the war, the Federal Government closed the Port Harcourt port to foreign traffic, making Lagos the sole port for wartime imports. This forced successive governments to institutionalise heavy reliance on Lagos ports.
Reacting to this, Amb. Igali said “The war ended in 1970. Many of the people born in that year are now grandparents, so I wonder why the Niger Delta ports should continue to remain idle”
With the administrative neglect of other ports, Lagos ports now handle 70 to 80 per cent of national trade. Over the years, this has created unprecedented congestion at Apapa and Tin Can ports, resulting in delayed cargo dwell time and rising daily demurrage. The Nigerian Shippers’ Council estimates that with as many as 20 vessels discharging simultaneously at terminals, transactional delays have reached at least 70 per cent.
In recent years, cargoes are being actively rerouted to neighbouring ports in Lomé, Togo, and Cotonou, Benin Republic, as importers seek to escape severe congestion and surging clearing costs in Lagos. By Q1 2023, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported an estimated N7.6 trillion in annual revenue losses to port congestion in Lagos.
Supply Chain Disruptions
The supply chain disruptions caused by idle ports outside Lagos are not limited to road mishaps like Mr. Udo’s tragedy. They also include the huge logistical costs importers incur moving goods from Lagos to Port Harcourt, Warri, and Calabar.
Data from the Nigerian Shippers’ Council shows that over 65 per cent of cargoes arriving in Lagos are destined for markets in Aba and Onitsha — markets that Warri and Port Harcourt ports ought to serve for efficient delivery. Maritime experts worry that these high logistics costs are reflected in selling prices, allowing middlemen to access goods at relatively cheaper rates in Lagos.
Amb. Igali’s response to this was an emotional outburst: “Look at the Ports in the Niger Delta – Warri, Port Harcourt, Koko, Sapele, and Burutu are not working.
“Even Onne is not working as it should; what have we done to deserve this kind of treatment ?” he queried.
The Maritime Sector Under Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda”
In August 2023, President Tinubu created the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy to optimally harness Nigeria’s largely underutilised 853km coastline and 10,000km inland waterways, the second largest in Africa. The target is to make the maritime sector contribute a projected $44 billion annually to Nigeria’s GDP.
On assuming office, President Tinubu approved $1 billion in October 2025 for the reconstruction of the nation’s five major seaports, including Warri, Port Harcourt, and Calabar. Funding has so far been secured for Lagos ports, with scope covering dredging to 16.5m depth, jetty reconstruction, berth expansion, new cargo handling equipment, digitisation, and road upgrades.
Information from the Nigerian Ports Authority shows that dredging and physical infrastructure rehabilitation have commenced at Calabar Port, while procurement is underway for the comprehensive rehabilitation of Warri and Port Harcourt ports.
This is the first full rehabilitation of the nation’s five major seaports in over 15 years — earning President Tinubu commendation for fulfilling his promise to the people of the Niger Delta.
In May 2026, the President approved certification for five deep seaports across the country: Badagry, Lagos; Olokola, Ondo; Ibom, Akwa Ibom; Bakassi, Cross River; and Bonny, Rivers. The President has maintained that these interventions demonstrate his administration’s commitment to transforming the maritime sector.
Acknowledging these developments, Amb. Igali said “While we commend efforts made so far to give other ports outside Lagos a facelift, it is also imperative to add that we need as many ports as possible, including the forgotten ones in Koko, Sapele, and Burutu, to grow the economy.
“While serving as Ambassador in Sweden, a tiny country of around nine million people, I noticed that it had about 36 thriving seaports doing export business all over Europe. Norway and Denmark even have more ports because they are more maritime. So, why can’t we have as many ports as possible, considering our vast maritime potential as a country?”, he further probed.
Harnessing Nigeria’s Maritime Potential
“I urge the president to remain steadfast and committed to decongesting the Lagos ports with sustained attention paid to their counterparts in the Niger Delta”, Amb. Igali entreated.
According to him, “This would greatly improve not only the economy of states in the Niger and the southeast, it is also in the overall economic interest of the nation at large.”
Amb. Igali’s entreaty is grounded in fact. Nigeria accounts for over 70 per cent of cargo traffic within the West and Central African subregion, with landlocked neighbours like Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso depending partially on its ports for trade access. He said “Having more ports means that Nigeria will take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area to flood all of West, Central, and Southern Africa with Nigerian goods”
For Amb. Igali, President Tinubu’s assurances to revamp moribund seaports in the Niger Delta must be matched with action like deploying dredgers to work on shallow drafts in the eastern corridor and ensuring contractors are on site to deliver the 48-month project on record time.
Conclusion
The Niger Delta gave Nigeria its oil, and it sits on the very coastline that can give the country its next economic boom. To keep these ports shuttered while Lagos drowns in congestion is not just an administrative failure, it is an economic self-sabotage.
If President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda is to mean anything to the millions in the South-South and South-East, then Warri, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and the forgotten jetties of Koko, Sapele and Burutu must roar back to life. The tools, the funding, and the political will are now on the table.
Nigeria does not need to keep exporting its goods through bottlenecks and importing grief through bad roads. The blue economy is waiting at our doorstep. It is time to open it.