By: OrePulse

Nigeria's federal government has secured a facility worth 746 million pounds to rehabilitate and modernize the ports of Apapa and Tin-Can Island in Lagos, Capt. Iheanacho Ebubeogu, chairman of the Ports Operations and Security Committee at the Nigerian Ports Consultative Council, said.

Ebubeogu said the funding is intended to bring the two facilities up to "green and smart standards through automation and other digital technologies." Officials expect the work to deliver upgraded cargo-handling equipment, faster vessel turnaround times, shorter cargo dwell periods, greater competitiveness for the ports and improved environmental performance.

The package extends well beyond Lagos. It will also fund rehabilitation of the Escravos breakwaters and of Terminals A and C, an upgrade of berths one through three at Rivers Port Terminal 1, additional maintenance dredging at Calabar Port, and construction of a single-track freight railway linking the Apapa Bulk Terminal to Tin-Can Island Port. Officials said the rail link is intended to cut the volume of truck traffic moving between the two facilities.

Ebubeogu tied the investment to Nigeria's competitiveness under the African Continental Free Trade Area, saying that upgrading "port infrastructure, digitalize operations, reform customs procedures" remains essential if the country is to capture the benefits of the continental trade pact. Trade officials widely see faster, cheaper cargo handling at Nigeria's main gateways as a precondition for Nigerian exporters and manufacturers to compete under the agreement's tariff terms.

Port managers identified draft limitations — restrictions tied to water depth that cap the size of vessels able to call at the facilities — as a persistent obstacle to larger ship arrivals. The government said channel management companies and additional tugboats are being brought in to help address the capacity constraint. However, officials did not give a timeline for when draft restrictions might ease.

Apapa and Tin-Can Island together handle the large majority of Nigeria's containerized trade, and both have long drawn criticism from shippers over congestion, aging equipment and lengthy vessel turnaround times that add cost to goods moving through Lagos. The modernization package follows earlier government efforts to ease bottlenecks around the port complex, including investment in access roads and traffic management on the corridor leading to the terminals.

By pairing the Lagos overhaul with work at Rivers, Calabar and Escravos, the government is positioning the financing as a nationwide upgrade of Nigeria's principal maritime gateways rather than a Lagos-only project. Rivers Port and Calabar Port both serve as secondary outlets for cargo that might otherwise be routed exclusively through Lagos, and officials have said improving their capacity could relieve some of the pressure on Apapa and Tin-Can Island.