Posted on June 18, 2025
Managing Director/CEO Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, who disclosed the figures on Monday in Lagos, said the package of civil works, dredging and berth upgrades is matched by new-build projects such as Snake Island Port, to rise on an 85-hectare site inside the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, and three deep-sea ports at Badagry, Ondo and Burutu now at various stages of completion.
The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) says its sweeping $1 billion reconstruction of Tin Can Island Port Complex—alongside simultaneous overhauls of the Apapa, Rivers, Onne, Warri and Calabar harbours—has begun to deliver record trade volumes and revive confidence in the nation’s blue-economy.
Managing Director/CEO Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, who disclosed the figures on Monday in Lagos, said the package of civil works, dredging and berth upgrades is matched by new-build projects such as Snake Island Port, to rise on an 85-hectare site inside the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, and three deep-sea ports at Badagry, Ondo and Burutu now at various stages of completion.
“Beyond bricks and mortar we are digitising operations through a Port Community System and National Single Window so vessels spend less time in harbour and exporters get paid faster,” he said.
Early data suggest the strategy is paying off. Cargo throughput jumped 45.1 percent to 103.3 million t in 2024, led by Lekki Port’s 2 160.8 percent surge. Ship calls climbed 5.6 percent to 4 005, while gross registered tonnage grew 15.4 percent to 142.7 million t. Average vessel turn-around time edged down to 4.6 days, with Lekki turning ships in just 2.5 days.
Container traffic rose 9.7 percent to 1.74 million TEUs, powered by a 53.7 percent leap in export-laden boxes and a 136.5 percent spike in trans-shipment volumes that positions Nigeria as a redistribution hub for West and Central Africa. Boat activity nearly doubled, with gross tonnage up 129 percent.
The gains translated into a ₦5.81 trn ($3.7 bn) trade surplus in third-quarter 2024, according to a Nigerian Economic Summit Group alert, and helped the federal government shift crude-oil sales into naira, saving scarce foreign exchange.
Dantsoho added that public-private partnerships are being finalised for port-side independent power plants, bunkering stations, fresh-water supply and ship-repair yards—initiatives he says will create “thousands of direct and indirect jobs” and strengthen national energy security.
Backed by Marine and Blue Economy Minister Adegboyega Oyetola, the NPA plans to roll out port automation and an electronic truck call-up system this year, completing what officials describe as Nigeria’s boldest modernisation since independence.
