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Nigeria must urgently revive its domestic shipping capacity if it hopes to reclaim its place in regional maritime trade, maritime stakeholders have said.
Speaking at the PortNews @30 celebration and 2025 Maritime Summit in Lagos, the Chairman of the occasion and Executive Chairman of Integrated Oil and Gas Limited, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho, emphasized the need for a deliberate policy shift to strengthen indigenous participation in shipping.
Recounting his experience as Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shipping Companies Association, Iheanacho revealed that past efforts to involve local operators in crude oil carriage by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) ended in vain because policymakers were convinced Nigerians couldn’t do it.
He challenged government agencies to ensure that the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) fulfills its purpose of empowering domestic shipowners, insisting that the fund must grow through industry contributions rather than relying solely on government subventions.
According to him, a strong cabotage system and an active indigenous fleet are vital to economic diversification, job creation, and national security. “We have the capacity and competence. What we need is trust in our own people and a regulatory framework that truly enables Nigerian participation,” Iheanacho said.
Setting the tone earlier, Publisher of PortNews, Mr. Wale Oni, described the 30th-anniversary milestone as both a celebration and a wake-up call for the maritime industry.
Speaking on the theme “Nigeria’s Shipping Carriage Gaps, CVFF and the Fading Manpower,” Oni questioned the transparency surrounding the CVFF, a fund created in 2003 to promote indigenous shipping.
His words: “Between 2003 and now, it’s being said that about $800 million, some even say $1 billion, has been realized into the CVFF purse. Why can’t the government tell us the exact amount? Why this level of opaqueness?”
Oni, who recounted PortNews’ humble beginnings in 1995, praised the Federal Government and NIMASA’s renewed commitment to maritime reform but stressed the need for urgency in disbursing the CVFF.
“A vibrant cabotage regime would generate billions of dollars and create jobs for our young people. We cannot continue to feign nonchalance to the plight of our seamen,” he said.
Meanwhile, the President of African Shipowners Association, Captain Ladi Olubowale, warned that the growing shortage of maritime manpower threatens the sector’s future.
He revealed that more than 5,000 trained Nigerian cadets remain unemployed due to lack of sea-time experience, calling for immediate intervention to place them onboard vessels. “Without sea-time, certificates are meaningless. Our knowledge base is fading fast,” he cautioned.
Also speaking, Elder Asu Beks, CEO of Maritime Media Limited and doyen of maritime journalism in Nigeria, reflected on the evolution of maritime reporting, praising the resilience and unity of professionals who have sustained the industry’s voice for decades.
The event drew key figures from the maritime sector, including the Founder of National Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (NAGAFF), Dr. Boniface Aniebonam; Head of Research at Sea Empowerment Research Centre (SEREC) Dr. Eugene Nweke; Musa Akinyemi; Omotoyinbo Festus; among others joined in celebrating PortNews’ three decades of advocacy for a stronger, self-reliant Nigerian maritime industry.
