The Shipping Association of Nigeria has stated that the improved stability of the naira throughout 2025 has significantly energized commercial activities across Nigeria’s maritime and logistics corridors, which has resulted in more predictable operations for the shipping industry and its stakeholders.

The Chairman of the association, Boma Alabi, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, discussed the development with newsmen over the weekend. Alabi reported a noticeable improvement in sector activities in 2025 when compared to the performance recorded in 2024.

Alabi also offered an assessment of the broader economic situation. He noted that the economy is beginning to pick up, while simultaneously cautioning that the economy is “still in woods” and, as such, a lot more work still needs to be done to further improve the overall economic landscape.

Providing specific data on the sector’s performance, Alabi stated: “So 2025 has been a better year than 2024 in terms of trade volumes.” He elaborated on this positive trend by saying: “We have seen an increase in volume of trade in goods coming in and going out. Which shows stability of the currency and other factors.”

The Chairman maintained a cautious but optimistic outlook on the economic recovery. He remarked: “The economy is improving. Obviously, we are coming from a very long road. Although there is still room for improvement, we still have a long way to go.”

Alabi then quantified the observed improvement by referencing port activity. He shared the association’s findings: “What are challenges we faced in the past year, by general observation of the number of vessels that are calling into our ports and also leaving our ports, we have seen an increase of about 40-50 percent in trade for 2025.”

Reacting to the positive development, the former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Hassan Bello, commented on the industry’s responsiveness. Bello attributed the trend to the fact that the Nigerian shipping industry is responding to the international nature of shipping because shipping itself is inherently international.

Bello further added that the current positive trend is not an isolated event happening solely in Nigeria. He also suggested that the stabilized Naira could be accurately attributed as a factor contributing to this significant development.