Eromosele Abiodun

The Managing Director, 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. 

He stated this yesterday during the maiden call of wholly Nigerian-owned container vessel “MV OCEAN DRAGON” at the West African Container Terminal Onne Port Port Comple, Onne Port, Rivers State.

According to Dantsoho, “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”.

Dantsoho added, “The very fact that this vessel which can move thousands of Gross Registered Tonnages across African destinations within days, signposts the Nigeria’s commitment to the dictates of International Association for Ports and Harbours (IAPH) on multi-modalism and seamless Port-Hinteland Connectivity.”

“This  gives us great delight as it supports the rationale behind NPA’s simplified export processes through the Export Processing Terminals (EPTs) conceptualized 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 modernization project and ongoing reform initiatives around our Port Operations is cognizant of the need to sustain the enabling business environment that midwifed the year-on-year attainment of national trade surpluses.” 

He added, “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 symbolizes the fact that the Nigerian business environment is progressively getting better.” 

“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 & Blue Economy His Excellency Adegboyega Oyetola, will continue to galvanize stakeholder efforts to continuously promote the ease of doing business all in a concerted bid to optimize the rich blue economy inherent in our maritime endowments,” he said.

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 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 crystallize.

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, South Africa.

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