Nearly half the ships calling in the Gulf of Guinea now come to Nigeria
Nigerian ports received 4,477 vessels and handled 129.3 million tonnes of cargo in 2025, the maritime agency says, and Lekki drew the region's biggest ships.
Lagos — Nigeria accounted for 46% of all port calls in the Gulf of Guinea in 2025, the director-general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dayo Mobereola, said on Friday at a World Maritime Day event in Lagos, BusinessDay reports.
The figures
- 4,477 vessels called at Nigerian seaports in 2025, according to Nigerian Ports Authority records.
- Cargo handled rose to 129.3 million tonnes, from 103.6 million in 2024. Côte d'Ivoire, the region's second-busiest, handled 54.37 million.
- Lekki port, Nigeria's only deep-sea port, received the largest ships on average, with an average gross tonnage of 55,712, and was the only Nigerian port to record transhipment in the first half of 2026.
The Gulf of Guinea has 20 commercial ports and carries a quarter of Africa's maritime traffic.
What it could mean
Aminu Umar, president of the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping, said the figures put Nigeria in a strong position to grow into a regional maritime hub. Today much of the region's cargo is transhipped through Morocco, Las Palmas, Egypt and Fujairah; deeper ports would let bigger ships call directly. The federal government plans more deep-sea ports along the coast, and DP World has signed agreements for a proposed deep-sea port and economic zone in Ogun State.
Source: BusinessDay, reporting by Bethel Olujobi, 17 October 2026.
