Nigerian entrepreneur and Managing Director of Aquarian Consult, Mrs. Aisha Maina, has secured a $40 million investment, backed by the African Export-Import Bank, to develop a deep-water port in St. Kitts, aimed at establishing a direct trade corridor between Africa and the Caribbean.

According to the statement, the agreement, also involving the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, was signed on July 28 in Grenada during the Afreximbank Afri-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum.

Maina, who is also the founder of Gemini Integrated Commodities, formalised the deal alongside Afreximbank officials.

“This port moves us from promise to throughput, from talk to tonnage. It is the physical backbone of a trade bridge that has been too long in the making,” she said at the signing ceremony.

Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, Dr. Terrance Drew, witnessed the signing, while the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, Samal Duggins, signed on behalf of the island nation.

Duggins hailed the agreement as a bold step toward driving transformation through tangible assets.

“Facility after facility, deal after deal, we are not just talking transformation; we are delivering it,” he said.

The deep-water port in Basseterre, featuring a Panamax berth, will serve as the hub of a 10-square-kilometre special economic zone focused on agro-processing, light assembly, and bonded warehousing. Feasibility and environmental studies are set to begin in August, with financial close expected in the first quarter of 2026. The first container is projected to arrive by the fourth quarter of 2028.

According to Maina, the new maritime corridor will cut Lagos-to-Basseterre shipping times to about seven days, bypassing costly European detours and offering African producers faster access to Caribbean markets.

“If the private sector does not take charge of the process, we will remain where we have been. Retreat or defeat are not options,” she told delegates at the Caribbean Investment Forum in Kingston, Jamaica, on July 30.

The facility will also function as a value-addition hub, enabling African raw materials to be processed closer to North American markets and strengthening regional supply chains.

The project builds on the momentum from the Afri-Caribbean Investment Summit held in Abuja in March, as well as a June trade mission during which an Air Peace Boeing 777 transported more than 120 Nigerian entrepreneurs and policymakers to Basseterre.