The managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, has disclosed that the reconstruction of the Apapa and TinCan Island ports in Lagos will be completed within 48 months.
Speaking at the ongoing World Ports Conference of the International Association of Ports and Harbours (IAPH), themed: ‘Reinvention and Prosperity in Turbulent Times,’ Kobe, Japan, Dantsoho said rehabilitation works were expected to commence in the first quarter of 2026, following extensive engineering, environmental, and design studies.
According to him, modernisation is part of the federal government’s plan to improve Nigeria’s seaport infrastructure, attract foreign investment, and reposition the maritime sector for competitiveness in the global logistics chain.
“Construction of this massive nature takes a lot of time to prepare. There are engineering studies, there are environmental studies, and there is design, among others. It’s like building a small house, it takes you three years, for example, so if you are building a port, it’s not what we can do easily but we are targeting a 48-month duration for reconstruction and we’re hoping that by the first quarter of next year, we commence the construction,” the NPA MD stated.
Dr Dantsoho, who is also the vice president of IAPH, Africa, further disclosed that the Nigerian economy was set for massive investment as investors applauded the economic reforms of the government of President Bola Tinubu. He further disclosed that collaboration was the bedrock of attracting investors to the nation’s port sector.
“The absence of concrete trust and relationship has happened in so many years. So, from what they are saying in this conference, you can imagine that it’s all about collaboration, but how do you collaborate when there is no trust? How do you collaborate when there is no relationship? So that is another area of interest to us that we must do our best to ensure that we have consolidated.
“We have to be able to be in the cycle of friends or partners that feel all of us are trusted in the same dynamics, in the same ecosystem. We also have a relationship because the port by itself is constructed to last 50 years minimum. If I’m investing in a port, I’m investing in a system that I believe will last 50 years, but that cannot happen if there is no relationship.
“So, we must come here, they see us, they partner with us. They appear a lot of times with them, we become friends with them, we become partners with them and they are happy with us.
“So, like I was saying to the MD of Singapore Port Authority, already Nigeria has given the contract to Crimson Logic, which is a Singaporean company that is a subsidiary of the Port Authority of Singapore for our national single window in Nigeria. That is a CrimsonLogic company and that’s part of the discussion that we’ve been having. If we have that, then they have the powers, they have the equipment, and they have the finance to be able to come to us because this thing is very, very capital-intensive.”
The NPA boss stated further that, port development is highly capital-intensive and can only be funded by foreign investors and not local financial institutions.
“That’s part of the discussion that we’ve been having. It is about collaboration and relationships. If you have that, then they have the powers, they have the equipment, and they have the finance to be able to come to us because this is very capital-intensive. You can see it’s not something that a local bank can fund. It’s something that you need to have a lot of support from outside to be able to achieve any reasonable progress.”
Dantsoho stated further that, with emerging technologies in shipping and port management, Nigeria must invest heavily in technology and automation across all its seaports.
“The world has moved from labour intensity. You can see they are even talking about automated ships now, that is the autonomous ships that in 2040, the ships by themselves will be moving on the sea and nobody will be on them. Nigeria cannot have enough money within our own country to build these massive things.
“We need to collaborate and partner with other people because, like I said, in 2006, Nigeria moved from the public sector port system to the private sector port system. We are now going to invest a lot in technology, which requires money, and people can only come and give you money if they know that they can recoup, because that’s the essence of market systems.
“We are trying to cultivate these relationships so that we are part of them. As we appear here today, we are also appearing in different conferences, and they see us as friends. We are part of the Port Management Association of West and Central Africa (PMAWCA), which is the West and Central African Association. We are in IAPH, which is the world Port, we are also in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), so they are seeing us as friends, and they are seeing us as part of the bigger family. So the discussions will continue, and then hopefully it will end in very wonderful results,” he stated.
