The Nigerian Ports Authority, building on strong performance throughout the third quarter of 2025, posted an impressive operational record during the period.
According to The Nation, statistical data provided by the NPA regarding ship calls across various locations on Wednesday shows that Tin Can Port led the chart at 22.7 per cent, closely followed by Apapa Port at 22.2 per cent.
Onne and Lekki Ports followed with shares of 18.9 per cent and 18.4 per cent respectively, while Calabar Port contributed 2.1 per cent of the total calls.
When analyzing ship calls by size, Lekki Port received the largest vessels with an average Gross Registered Tonnage of 57,244, followed by Onne Port at 51,276 GRT.
Apapa and Tin Can Island Ports recorded average GRTs of 35,556 and 34,400 respectively, while Delta Ports saw an average of 18,677 tonnes.
Lekki Port was identified as the dominant growth driver for cargo output, accounting for 46.8 per cent of the total cargo handled in Q3 2025.
Onne Port contributed 17 per cent, Apapa Port followed with 15.1 per cent, and Tin Can Island Port accounted for 10 per cent, with Calabar Port recording the lowest share.
A further breakdown by cargo type showed that Liquid Bulk held the highest share at 53.8 per cent, followed by Containerised Cargo at 26.6 per cent.
Dry Bulk and Other General Cargo contributed 11.3 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively to the total cargo volume.
NPA Managing Director Abubakar Dantsoho attributed the strong performance to the Federal Government’s export-focused economic reforms, the policy direction of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the strategic leadership of the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola.
He noted that “their combined interventions have strengthened efficiency and confidence across the maritime sector.”
He added that “ongoing port modernisation initiatives championed by the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, the deployment of export processing terminals, and the expansion of digital platforms such as the electronic truck call-up system have reduced bottlenecks, improved turnaround time and positioned Nigeria’s ports to play a more strategic role in regional and global trade.”
Industry analysts describe “the Q3 performance as underscoring the growing contribution of the maritime sector to Nigeria’s non-oil export drive, as ports align more closely with the administration’s broader economic diversification and blue economy development agenda.”
The NPA recorded a dramatic 1,085 per cent surge in export-laden containers as total cargo throughput rose to 33.52 million metric tonnes in the third quarter of 2025.
Operational data indicates that cargo handled during this period increased by 16.2 per cent, up from the 28.84 million metric tonnes recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2024.
This performance is largely attributed to the export-oriented economic policies of President Tinubu, whose administration has prioritised trade facilitation, port efficiency, and non-oil export growth as critical pillars of Nigeria’s economic diversification agenda.
These policies have increased investors’ confidence and repositioned the maritime sector as a mainstay of economic growth.
Import-laden containers rose by 33.1 per cent to 268,713 TEUs from 201,839 TEUs a year earlier, while export-laden containers surged to 69,039 TEUs from just 5,812 TEUs in the same period of 2024.
The sharp rise in export containers resulted in a 21.5 per cent reduction in empty container traffic, signalling a better balance between imports and exports.
Ship traffic also grew, with the number of vessel calls increasing by 8.4 per cent to 1,074 ships compared to 991 vessels in Q3 2024.
Total Gross Registered Tonnage jumped by 18 per cent to 42.64 million from 36.13 million recorded a year earlier, indicating that Nigerian ports are handling increasingly larger vessels.
