🍞Thriving ports

Hello!

Adetomiwa here 👋🏽. It’s Fibromyalgia Awareness Month. If you’ve ever told someone with chronic pain that they’re being dramatic, I’m side-eyeing you.

This edition explores some of the things Nigeria is doing well, from better cargo port management to more backing for women-led businesses. We also discuss some drawbacks of digitisation (what happens when fraudsters in a country like Nigeria get sophisticated?) and how Nigeria is really doing debt-wise.

Nigeria handled 32.38 million metric tonnes of cargo in the first quarter of 2026, up from 29.02 million tonnes during the same period last year. Meaning more goods are entering and leaving the country through the ports.

The NPA says this growth came from stronger import and export activity, improved cargo handling, and rising demand for port services. But the more interesting signal is how the cargo is moving.

Gross Registered Tonnage (GRT), a measure tied to ship size and carrying capacity, jumped 19.5% to 46.75 million. That means larger vessels are increasingly coming into Nigerian ports. And shipping companies don’t just casually reroute massive vessels somewhere unless they think it’s worth the time and money.

A lot of that confidence is linked to the Lekki Deep Sea Port, which is changing shipping patterns and expanding cargo capacity.

Exports are having a moment
One of the strongest numbers in the report was outward cargo traffic, which rose 23.7% to 14.13 million metric tonnes.

Even more notable: export containers surged 67.6%, jumping from 61,332 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) to 102,803 TEUs. That suggests Nigerian exporters are moving more goods through formal shipping channels and ports are getting slightly less chaotic in the process.

This matters because Nigeria has spent years talking about diversifying away from oil while still behaving like oil is the head of the family. Rising export logistics activity could mean sectors outside crude are getting more attention in regional and global trade.

Vehicle imports also climbed 67% to nearly 59,000 units (wild for people to still be importing cars at scale in a country where eggs are now a luxury item).

Nigeria wants to be West Africa’s middleman
The really strategic number here may be transhipment activity, which rose by 83.1%. Nigeria wants ships to stop here first, then distribute goods across West Africa from Nigerian ports.

That’s a big deal under the African Continental Free Trade Area, where countries are competing to become regional trade gateways. If Nigeria can capture more of that traffic, ports become an economic leverage.

The problem is Nigeria still punches below its weight. NPA boss Abubakar Dantsoho admitted the country currently handles only around 25% of West African cargo traffic despite accounting for more than 60% of the region’s GDP.

So this current growth is Nigeria finally inching towards its full potential

Betting on port reforms
The Tinubu administration is currently pushing maritime reforms pretty aggressively. The strategy is to fix infrastructure, digitise processes, reduce bottlenecks, and convince shipping lines that Nigeria is worth the stress.

There’s already a planned $1 billion overhaul for the Lagos Port Complex and Tin Can Island Port, while upgrades are also being planned for Warri, Port Harcourt, Onne, and Calabar ports.

The government is also rolling out systems like the Port Community System and National Single Window platform to automate cargo clearance and reduce the legendary paperwork marathon that businesses deal with at Nigerian ports.

Surprisingly, security improvements are helping too. Nigeria has reportedly gone over four years without a piracy incident in its territorial waters, something authorities credit to the Deep Blue Project and expanded maritime surveillance.

The bigger picture
For years, Nigerian ports were famous for delays, congestion, and making importers age visibly. But Q1 2026 suggests the sector may actually be entering a more competitive phase.

The real test is whether these gains become consistent enough to lower shipping costs, improve turnaround times, and attract long-term regional cargo flows. Because under AfCFTA, every major African economy wants to become a logistics hub. Nigeria is just finally actually working for the job.

💪🏽 AfDB is backing women in business: The African Development Bank Group just approved a $61 million package for the Development Bank of Nigeria to help more women-owned businesses get access to loans. And considering how hard it can be for small businesses in Nigeria to get affordable credit, this is basically the financial equivalent of finally finding someone willing to lend you their charger at 2% battery. 95% of the money is specifically reserved for women-led businesses, with funding expected to flow into sectors like farming, clean energy, and healthcare. The AfDB says women entrepreneurs are one of Nigeria’s most underused economic assets, so they’re doing something about it. The package includes loans, grants, guarantees, and training support, all aimed at helping banks feel more comfortable lending to smaller women-led businesses.

👀 All eyes on Naija: Aliko Dangote recently met with Nicolai Tangen, whose firm manages the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which has $2 trillion in assets (for context, Africa’s largest, Libyan Investment Authority, has about $64 million in assets). During the meeting, the Norwegian investment leader signalled interest in teaming up with Dangote Group to grow investments across Africa, particularly in sectors like energy, agriculture, fertiliser, cement, and renewables. Basically, if it involves building, powering, or feeding economies, they want in. The meeting also included the CEOs of Yara International (a leader in crop nutrition) and Scatec (renewable energy), suggesting this wasn’t just a courtesy visit or coffee chat. It points to growing international interest in Africa’s industrial and infrastructure sectors. It also confirms that Dangote remains very booked and busy.

💸 Debt is adding up: The Nigerian Economic Summit Group says Nigeria’s debt situation still isn’t exactly comfortable, even if some of the headline numbers are starting to look better. While the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to improve slightly, the NESG argues that this may be giving a false sense of security. According to the group, the real issue is that Nigeria is still spending a huge chunk of its revenue servicing debt, which is a bit like celebrating that your credit card balance went down while ignoring the fact that most of your salary still disappears into repayments every month. Its Debt Burden Index, which the NESG says gives a more realistic picture of fiscal stress, is still in the “high-risk” zone. The concern is that rising debt-service costs could continue squeezing government spending on things people actually notice and need, like roads, healthcare, education, and security. In short, the numbers may look calmer on the surface, but underneath, the economy is still doing a lot of financial heavy lifting.

Nigeria’s biggest banks are processing more digital payments than ever, but fraudsters are clearly clocking in for overtime too. Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc, and United Bank for Africa Plc lost a combined ₦2.13 billion to fraud and forgery in 2025, mostly through electronic scams. Interestingly, the total number of fraud cases actually fell, but the amount stolen per successful attack increased (scammers are apparently focusing on quality over quantity now 😭).

The upside for banks is that they still managed to block or recover nearly 80% of targeted funds before the money disappeared completely. Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System data shows instant payments hit nearly ₦285 trillion in Q1 2025 alone, so the sheer volume of transactions means even tiny weaknesses can become very expensive very quickly. To keep up, the banks collectively spent over ₦280 billion on cybersecurity, fraud monitoring, and transaction security systems.

Nigeria’s cashless economy is growing fast, but so is the number of people trying to convince you that they are your bank. That’s 1 point for team “physical cash is king”.

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