At the just-concluded meeting of Managing Directors of Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), which held in Lagos, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho disclosed that the Federal Government of Nigeria has completed approvals, certifications and compliance processes for five proposed deep seaport projects for investment and implementation.
He went further to identify the proposed seaports as: Badagry Deep Seaport in Lagos State, Olokola Deep Seaport in Ondo State, Ibom Deep Seaport in Akwa Ibom State, Bakassi Deep Sea port in Cross River State and Bonny Deep Seaport in Rivers State.
He went ahead to inform his brother Chief Executives of ports in West and Central Africa that, the ambitious deep seaports projects was part of efforts to reposition Nigeria to reclaim the over 70 per cent of Nigerian-bound cargo transported through other African countries.
According to him, the planned port projects are expected to improve Nigeria’s ability to receive larger cargo vessels, expand trade capacity and strengthen regional logistics, noting that the country’s growing population, expanding economy and strategic role in servicing neighbouring landlocked countries make investment in deepsea ports inevitable.
Dantsoho added that, Nigeria currently accounts for over 70 per cent of cargo traffic within the West and Central African sub-region, while countries such as Niger, Chad, Mali and Burkina Faso also depend partly on Nigerian ports for international trade access.
Conventionally, deep seaports are maritime facilities designed to accommodate large, heavily loaded ships with deep drafts. These ports are crucial for international trade, facilitating the movement of goods in and out of a country. They typically have a water depth of at least 18 meters (or about 60 feet), which allows them to handle massive vessels that typical ports cannot.
One can boldly affirm that, while there are plans for others, the only deep seaport in Nigeria as at today is the Lekki port. It is Nigeria’s first and currently only operating deep seaport, located in the Lagos Free Zone. It is a multi-purpose port, which commenced full commercial operations in April 2023.
The craving for deep seaports in Nigerian can be understood, because such ports seaports can be economic drivers as they handle larger volume of cargo and larger vessels, making them more efficient for international trade. Deep seaports can serve as transshipment hubs, facilitating the transfer of cargo to smaller vessels for distribution to other ports.
One of the major economic benefits is that it can reduce congestion at existing ports, improve efficiency, lower transportation costs, and attract more international trade
However, the entry of Dangote Group into the capital intensive, but highly-lucrative business of deep seaport has change the narratives completely.
Until the coming of Lekki port, the seaports in Nigeria have always been: Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port; both in Lagos State, Calabar Port in Cross River State, Delta Ports in Warri, Delta State, Rivers Port Complex and the Onne Port; both in Rivers State. But none of them had the draft that receive bigger vessels.
Then came the deep seaport craving, leading to the ones earlier listed above. Later, the number was pruned down to only three, namely: Lekki, Badagry and Ibom. And out of these, only Lekki port has yet become a reality.
Before Lekki deep seaport opened for business, Apapa port had always enjoyed the glory of being the biggest port in Nigeria. But the expansive and more modern Lekki port has since taken that glory. This is, going by the services it offers, and the size of the port and the cargo throughput it has recorded since taking off.
Yes, the two ports in Lagos have been over-stretched, and the effect is glaring for all to see. There is an obvious case of lack of planning about the future of both Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
The rising crave for deep seaports in Nigeria is perhaps informed by the realization that Nigeria can no longer rely on existing ports in Lagos, Rivers, Cross Rivers and Delta states.
The total cargo throughput for all the ports in Nigeria in 2025 is 129.3 million metric tonnes, which is a 24.8% increase from 2024’s volume of 103.6 million metric tonnes. In all these, inward traffic (imports) accounted for 59.2%, exports made up 39%, and transshipment contributed 1.8%.
Notably, the Lekki Deep Seaport drove a significant portion of this activity, accounting for 40.6% of the total throughput, followed by Onne Port (19.1%) and Apapa Port (16.7%). Lekki also attracted the largest vessels, averaging 55,712 GRT, ahead of Onne at 53,022 GRT.
Although Tin Can Island Port recorded the highest number of ship calls (22.7%), Lekki and Onne increasingly received larger vessels, boosting Nigeria’s capacity to handle high-value cargo. Overall, ship arrivals rose nearly 12% to 4,477 vessels.
As the largest importer and exporter of cargo in the West and Central Africa, Nigeria deserves to become a hub for the sub-continent. Also, bigger ships move cargo more efficiently than smaller vessels; so, economy of scale makes it imperative that ship owners will buy new and bigger vessels and these will have to dock somewhere.
This is where the proposed deep seaport at Olokola in Ogun state that is being spearheaded by the Dangote Group, is a commendable initiative, especially as it is not targeting conventional dry and containerized cargoes. Its promoters have said that their interests is oil and gas.
With the abundance of gas reserves and the products that the Dangote refinery is churning out, the Ogun/Ondo port is most likely in a world of its own and a likely to be commercial success.
While Nigeria is currently dreaming of about five deep seaports, the question may be asked, whether the nation actually needs the number.
Dangote Group currently exports fertiliser to the US, Brazil, Mexico, India. All these are done from its facilities in multi-billion dollar refinery in Lekki.
While we are not opposed to development of new deep seaports in the country, we are however perturbed about the rush to have as many as five, as it is being proposed by the Federal Government through the NPA.
Many of them may turn out to become white elephant projects. Why can’t the states where those ports are being contemplated collaborate with the Federal Government to bring life to the ports that are currently in their axis? Why seek to establish ‘your own ports’?
For instance, we expect Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers state governments to see how Calabar port will be made more viable, rather than source for funds for Ibom deep seaport. The two states can join hands with the Federal Government to address the shortcomings of the Calabar Port to make it viable. The challenges of Calabar Port are – its limited draft, which has made it impossible for large vessels to call and the low cap of Ikom bridge challenge. These are not insurmountable problems.
The toughest of the pack is the Badagry port, which the Lagos state government says is needed to shift development to the western flank of the state, thereby competing with the Lekki port!
We are doubtful about the competitiveness of the Badagry deep seaport, especially with the proposal for Olokola port, which is just about 100kilometres away from Dangote refinery in Lekki.
Available data confirm that container throughput at Lagos ports has increased significantly, and Lagos ports account for almost 80 percent of the total volume of cargo handled by Nigerian ports.
This underscores the need for additional facilities and the best option in line with global trends is a deep seaport. Lekki port appears to be the answer to this question.
As it is, while the proposed Olokola Deep seaport may offer an answer to the desire for a specialized facility to handle oil and gas exports, same can not be said of others that are in the pipeline. However, if their business cases can guarantee viability and competitiveness, they should be encouraged.
