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Dantsoho: Turning Eastern ports to beautiful bride among Shippers through infrastructural upgrade, focused leadership

Funso Olojo
Apart from reviving the Eastern ports, the Nigerian Ports Authority is at the heart of the Federal government ‘s drive to strengthen Nigeria’s economic diversification options through a sustainable blue economy ventures like ship building, ship repair and other dry dock activities
The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr. Abubakar Dantsoho, is sustaining conscious steps aimed at improving ship traffic to  the eastern ports and repositioning them for optimum efficiency.
As part of the Authority’s contribution to boosting the national economy, Dantsoho is working tirelessly to maximise the potentials of Onne and Port Harcourt ports while also reviving the existing ports in Calabar, Warri and other parts of the South South without losing focus on greenfield port projects.
Proximity to Northern Industrial Clusters
For years, shipping into Nigeria meant Lagos ports first, everywhere else second.
The Eastern Ports- Port Harcourt, Onne, Warri, and Calabar- were left in the shadows despite their proximity to key markets and resource corridors.
Despite its potential, weak infrastructure and limited connectivity kept the Eastern ports underused.
Lagos absorbed over 90 per cent of maritime traffic while Eastern facilities ran below a third of their capacity.
But today, that story is beginning to change.
Under the leadership of Dantsoho, Eastern ports are being repositioned as a competitive gateway.
For shippers, the benefits are obvious- shorter turnaround times, closer access to the South-East and North-Central industrial clusters, lower transportation costs, and the ability to move agricultural and mineral products more efficiently.
All these are aimed at deepening Nigeria’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) regime.
To demonstrate his hands on approach, Dantsoho embarked on a series of tours and focussed on driving investment into the Eastern Ports.
These tours have started to yield expressions of interest for Rivers, Calabar, and Burutu Ports.
 One of these is the recently celebrated call of the wholly Nigerian-owned MV Ocean Dragon at Onne’s West African Container Terminal (WACT) on July 31, 2025.
With a 349 TEU capacity, the MV Ocean Dragon shall be plying routes across West, Central, and Southern Africa, exemplifying the “Nigeria First” policy and pronouncing Nigeria as a key player in intra African trade.
Through these efforts, the NPA is showing its commitment to integrating Nigerian producers with global markets and maximising the immediate benefits of the proximate African trade corridor by water.
Dantsoho’s management introduced new tariffs, which became effective on March 1, 2025.
 The tariffs reflect operational costs while maintaining competitiveness and enhancing the actualisation of the Authority’s 25-year master plan which emphasizes automation, cybersecurity, and sustainability, including a proposed “Green Craft Acquisition Fund” for IMO-compliant vessels.
Partnerships, Achievements Touching on Exports
The NPA has continued to pursue strategic partnerships, which are driving growth.
For instance, Hapag-Lloyd launched a weekly service at Onne, connecting Eastern Nigeria to global routes and enhancing transshipment under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Collaborations with relevant agencies of government like the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for 24-hour operations also aim at reducing cargo release times and curb diversions to neighbouring ports.
And performance metrics reflect success so far.
Records show that service boat Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT) rose 129.3% to 4.58 million tons in 2024.
 The Eastern Ports have also seen larger vessels berth safely, with stakeholders like Indorama reporting higher export tonnages.
In anticipation of the growth that this progress growth indicates, the NPA projects ₦1.28 trillion in revenue for 2025, up from ₦894.86 billion in 2024.
 And the development in the Eastern Ports contributes significantly to the projected revenue rise.
Buoyed by the fruits of its effort so far, the NPA introduced new incentive regime to encourage patronage of non-Lagos ports, including discounts and streamlined processes for Eastern corridors.
And in achieving that, the Authority is aligning with the Federal Government’s “Nigeria First” which emphasises infrastructure modernization, operational efficiency, and indigenous participation in the maritime sector.
Discussions with stakeholders like the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN) have therefore, focussed on boosting indigenous ownership and short-sea shipping.
Driving FG’s Economic Diversification
Apart from rebuilding investors’ confidence to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) to viable private sector initiatives like ship building and repairs, NPA is presently at the heart of the federal government’s drive to strengthen Nigeria’s economic diversification options through a sustainable blue economy Ventures like ship building, ship repair and other dry dock activities are attracting attention.
At a recent forum in Lagos, Founder of Starz Marine and Engineering Limited in Rivers State, Engr. Greg Ogbeifun, disclosed the commitment of $350 million loan by Afrexim Bank to facilitate shipbuilding and expansion of the yard.
This, he stated, will aid the expansion of the Starz’s shipyard from 500 tons to 10,000 ton lifting capacity, 120 meter long circle lift, for the purpose of achieving quality ship repair and building which Nigerians have had cause to travel for.
Infrastructure Modernisation, Capacity Building.
A cornerstone of the NPA’s strategy is significant investment in port infrastructure to accommodate larger vessels and reduce vessel turnaround times.
Port Harcourt, though historic, was underdeveloped, Onne thrived as an oil and gas base but not for as container-handling, Warri struggled with shallow approaches through Escravos, while Calabar, battled draft restrictions that discouraged major carriers.
These barriers created a cycle of neglect and reinforced Lagos’ dominance.
The Dantsoho led administration at Nigerian Ports Authority, has however made breaking cycle a priority.
With reforms that include infrastructural and equipment upgrades, financial incentives, and stakeholder engagement have been put forward.
Channel dredging and rehabilitation are said to be ongoing at Warri, Onne, and Calabar to accommodate larger vessels.
At Onne Port Complex, a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with West African Container Terminal (WACT) Nigeria Limited has advanced Terminal ‘B’ expansion (Berths 7 and 8) to 62% completion, with over $110 million invested.
This upgrade is part of a broader $2.9 billion Onne Port Expansion Phase 4B project which is the largest port investment in Africa over the past decade.
Additionally, a 6,000 metric tonne bitumen tank is nearing completion at Rivers Port Complex, enhancing storage and supporting regional infrastructure needs.
The NPA has now secured $1.1 billion for comprehensive rehabilitation across Eastern Ports, including Onne, Rivers, Calabar, and Warri.
Key projects include road network integration at Onne’s Berths 9-11, installation of marine fenders authority-wide, and surveys for shore protection at Escravos breakwaters in Warri.
Navigational aids and buoys have been deployed in Warri and Calabar Pilotage Districts to improve channel marking and safety.
These enhancements have led to unprecedented cargo traffic, particularly at Onne, attributed to improved channel security and reduced attacks on vessels.
Dredging efforts are also ongoing to increase draught depths, such as targeting 11 meters at Onne and Calabar to handle bigger ships with a mind on avoiding past situations like the stalled $12.5million contract and legal conundrum.
Although Onne has welcomed ships that once avoided the corridor, security patrols across the Niger Delta are supported by partner agencies, thereby reducing piracy and other threats at sea while reassuring international shipping lines of the security of their vessels.
On the commercial side, tariff rebates on harbour dues has lowered cost for users of the Eastern ports, while terminal concessions are driving private investment in modern cargo-handling equipment.
Hopefully through the Port Harcourt-Maiduguri rail, the North-East would have a direct maritime outlet, where agricultural produce and solid minerals can be exported from.
This is exactly what an efficient port system is.
Furthermore, the NPA has acquired state-of-the-art harbour crafts, including two 80-tonne Bollard Pull tugboats (M.T. Maikoko and M.T. Da-Opukuro), the first of their kind in Africa to eliminate berthing and sailing delays .
These vessels, complemented by additional tugboats and pilot cutters, have improved efficiency, with average vessel turnaround time dropping to 5.16 days so far.
The Electronic Call-up (Eto) system and Export Processing Terminals (EPTs) have also streamlined operations, boosting export volumes by 60% in some terminals.
Opening of ‘Road D’ at Onne has also alleviated logistics bottlenecks, attracting commendations from truckers.
That is in addition to several other initiatives that support multimodal transport and align with International Association for Ports and Harbours (IAPH) standards for port-hinterland connectivity.
Future Outlook: Thriving Eastern Maritime Hub
The NPA’s multifaceted approach —combining infrastructure upgrades, equipment acquisitions, incentives, and partnerships, to improve delivery position the Eastern Ports as vital economic engines.
Under the supervision of His Excellency, Gboyega Oyetola, these efforts promise sustained ease of doing business and blue economy optimization.
As transshipment figures from Lekki Deep Seaport rise and trade surpluses grow, the Eastern Ports, with continued focus on security, dredging, and indigenous capacity, are poised for even greater vessel traffic and investment, contributing to Nigeria’s maritime renaissance.
Succour for Aba Manufacturers, Onitsha Traders.
Thanks to NPA, manufacturers in Aba, traders in Onitsha, and industrial clusters in Nnewi can now route their cargo through the Eastern ports nearest to them, saving time and money.
With this new dawn, Onne will strengthen its dominance as the Gulf of Guinea’s offshore logistics hub.
Port Harcourt and Calabar can become lifelines to South-East and linkages to Cameroon and Central Africa.
Like the legendary King Midas, whose hands turned anything he touched to gold, Dr Dantsoho is championing a regime of deploying human resources and materials to where matters most, focusing attention on critical areas of NPA functions that affects the economy.
His hands on approach to management and leadership is providing a hybrid of government, private and sector collaboration that daily draws Nigeria closer to the full realisation of becoming the leading maritime country in West and Central Africa.
His impactful work in progress mode is a testament to his decades of involvement in port activities as a youth corps member in NPA to an employee who grew through the ranks that providence has seen to now lead the NPA as MD.
 There is a consensus that he is President Tinubu’s most experienced maritime appointee who justifies the trust by creating an enabling environment for unfettered growth in the nation’s blue economy ecosystem.
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Analyses

National Single Window: Paper on glass(6)

Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim 

The deployment of digital software portals across Nigeria’s maritime gateways has created a dangerous sense of administrative accomplishment.

On paper, policy declarations boast of automated workflows and modern interfaces designed to ease the cost of doing business. On the ground, however, the reality remains stubbornly archaic.

If the presidency and the newly minted National Single Window team believe that true automation begins and ends with front-end digital software portals like the new B’Odogwu Customs System, they are falling for an expensive trap.

True technological transformation cannot simply mean scanning old bureaucracies onto a computer screen. Cosmetic digitization does not eradicate systemic corruption; it merely moves the extortion from the physical Port gate onto a digital dashboard.

The structural flaw undermining our current modernization drive is the “scanned paper” reality. Clearing agents are routinely forced to upload digital documents onto unified portals, only to face the absurdity of printing out those exact same files to present them physically at various Port commands.

This duplication completely defeats the purpose of an automated gateway.
True single window success requires the total legal abolition of physical paper documentation within the Port perimeter.

We must transition from an era of “paper-on-glass” to pure, untampered digital data flows. A digital portal is utterly useless if the data it processes is still manually verified, delayed, or altered by human gatekeepers behind the scenes.

To break this cycle, the system must shift from human discretion to algorithmic risk profiling. We must enforce a machine-driven risk engine that automatically routes cargo through green, yellow, or red channels based entirely on hard data and compliance history.

Under this framework, once a container profile passes automated risk evaluation, an individual officer should not possess the arbitrary power to flag it for a manual “re-examination.”

Unauthorized human interventions on automated system routing must be treated as institutional sabotage and criminalized accordingly. Removing human delays from the logistics chain requires stripping human actors of the capacity to stall.

Furthermore, we must aggressively implement a single wallet mandate to clean up the financial architecture of our Ports. A true single window platform must consolidate all customs duties, agency fees, and terminal charges into one single electronic transaction.

This eradication of multi-layered payment checkpoints will instantly dry up the illicit cash demands that fuel the multi-billion-naira demurrage trap.

By deploying automated escrow systems, the central portal can instantly distribute revenues to the respective agency accounts—be it the Nigeria Customs Service, NPA, or NIMASA—only after automated cargo release metrics are met.

The ultimate structural shift, however, requires moving the entire national Port philosophy beyond the physical gate.

Top-tier maritime capitals like Singapore and Rotterdam do not stall their economies by interrogating cargo at the wharf; they rely on Post-Clearance Audits (PCA).

Nigeria must transition to a system where cargo is released instantly within a guaranteed 24-hour window based on automated risk profiles, while reserving heavy verification for robust, off-site corporate audits later.

Until we replace cosmetic upgrades with this level of raw process re-engineering, our software portals remain empty promises. True automation is not a software purchase; it is an uncompromising institutional discipline.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja

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Analyses

The National Single Window Illusion: Why phase two cannot succeed on paper

Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim

The official rollout of Phase One of the National Single Window (NSW) was heralded as a monumental leap toward a paperless, automated trade ecosystem.

On paper and within executive dashboards, the achievements are clear: the serialization of Licenses, Certificates, and Permits (LCPO), streamlined electronic manifest transmissions, and integrated risk management for primary regulators like SON and NAFDAC.

Yet, as the steering committee aggressively prepares for the imminent deployment of Phase Two, a severe operational reality check is required.

The claim that the Single Window has successfully “taken off” remains a purely administrative illusion when measured against the brutal, manual friction remaining at our terminal gates.

The core vulnerability of the current transition is the absolute failure to align digital front-end clearances with physical back-end enforcement.

Importers are successfully navigating the centralized National Single Window Portal, obtaining official electronic green lights, only to watch their consignments get trapped by manual human greed the moment the cargo hits the access roads.

Phase Two promises end-to-end electronic customs clearance, full payment digitization, and automated interoperability with the Nigeria Customs Service’s new B’Odogwu Unified Customs Management System.

However, if the federal administration continues to pour billions into software updates while leaving parallel manual check-points unpunished, Phase Two will simply become a highly expensive digital facade masking an archaic extortion regime.

True trade facilitation is not a technological achievement; it is a direct function of political will.

The integration of advanced platforms like B’Odogwu across major commands like Apapa and Tin Can proves that our regulatory arms possess the technical capability to automate. The problem is cultural and financial.

Entrenched administrative empires are deliberately preserving parallel manual structures because documentation loops, artificial delays, and manufactured compliance flags remain incredibly lucrative.

For the National Single Window to transition from a policy delusion into a genuine economic catalyst, the state must move past cosmetic celebrations.

The presidency must deploy the executive power required to completely outlaw physical interventions outside the approved digital framework and enforce severe punitive consequences for any agency chief who authorizes parallel verification processes.

Until the gate complies with the portal, the National Single Window project remains grounded.

Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja

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Analyses

The National Single Window illusion: Why phase two is dead on arrival

Chief Nasiru Ibrahim

Tomorrow on Monday Discourse with Nasiru Ibrahim,  I am dropping part three of my maritime audit, ‘The Single Window Illusion: Why Phase Two is Already Grounded.

For months, our regulatory class has hidden behind the glossy public relations of automated portals, celebrating the ‘take-off’ of Phase One.

But a cold look at the raw data reveals a terrifying truth: we are running a digitised facade over a broken, manual rent-seeking ecosystem.

Tomorrow , I shall be  exposing the massive operational disconnect between the new B’Odogwu Customs System and the brutal, manual greed at the terminal gates.

You cannot claim to master trade velocity when parallel checkpoints, erratic human intervention, and bridge shakedowns are hardcoded into the Apapa corridor.

Tomorrow, we strip away the illusions and confront the structural arithmetic holding our supply chains hostage.

Lock your dials on this platform. The clock is ticking.

 

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