By Steve Agbota
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Abubakar Dantsoho, has restated the readiness of the NPA to promote the indigenous ownership of shipping vessels in line with the ‘Nigeria First’ policy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Speaking during the maiden call of the wholly Nigerian-owned container vessel “MV Ocean Dragon” at the West African Container Terminal, Onne Port Complex, on Thursday, July 31, 2025, Dantsoho said, “Apart from the high loading capacity of 349 TEUs and several other distinctive features of this vessel, we are fascinated that MV Ocean Dragon is wholly Nigerian, which speaks to the Renewed Hope ‘Nigeria First’ policy of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian Ports Authority’s renewed orientation towards Nigerian content development.”
Speaking further, Dantsoho opined that the very fact that this vessel, which can move thousands of Gross Registered Tonnages across African destinations within days, signposts Nigeria’s commitment to the dictates of the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH) on multi-modalism and seamless port-hinterland connectivity.
“This gives us great delight as it supports the rationale behind NPA’s simplified export processes through the Export Processing Terminals (EPTs), conceptualised to link local producers of value in the remotest hinterland to the farthest international centres of demand.
“Let me seize this moment to reiterate that the Authority’s port modernisation project and ongoing reform initiatives around our port operations are cognisant of the need to sustain the enabling business environment that has midwifed the year-on-year attainment of national trade surpluses.
“Coming on the heels of increasing growth in Nigeria’s transhipment figures from the Lekki Deep Seaport and the expansion in external goods trade reported by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) thus far for 2025, the coming on stream of MV Ocean Dragon to propel even greater volumes symbolises the fact that the Nigerian business environment is progressively getting better,” he said.
“With shipping volumes promising to get higher, forward-looking investments such as the one we are gathered here to celebrate will certainly have a big impact in the long run.
“I want to assure the global investment community that the Nigerian Ports Authority, under the supervision of the investor-friendly Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, will continue to galvanise stakeholder efforts to continuously promote the ease of doing business, all in a concerted bid to optimise the rich blue economy inherent in our maritime endowments,” he added.
The container vessel, owned by Clarion Shipping West Africa Limited, an indigenous investor, which has a capacity of 349 Twenty-Foot-Equivalent Units (TEUs), gives a boost to the concerted investment drive geared towards reaping the cost and time-saving benefits of short-sea shipping by plying in-country maritime trade routes across Nigeria and the West African sub-region and offers an efficient alternative to road transport as the Authority’s efforts at deepening multi-modalism crystallise.
The vessel is scheduled to operate across West Africa and beyond, servicing ports in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Egypt, and South Africa.
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