The Maritime Innovation Hub, in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, will host a Blue Economy Investment Summit from 9 to 11 March 2026 in Lagos.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Maritime Innovation Hub, Princess Ronke Kosoko, disclosed this during a media parley in Abuja on Monday, where she provided details of the planned summit.
Kosoko said the summit would be declared open by President Bola Tinubu.
She added that the summit is aimed at attracting investment and promoting reforms across Nigeria’s maritime and coastal sectors.
“Nigeria has a coastline of over 850 km and an exclusive economic zone of more than 200 nautical miles. Nigeria possesses vast untapped potential within the Blue Economy, encompassing maritime transport, fisheries, aquaculture, shipbuilding, offshore energy, tourism, and marine biotechnology.
“Globally, the Blue Economy is projected to reach over $3tn by 2030, and Nigeria’s strategic location as West Africa’s maritime hub positions it to harness substantial socio-economic benefits, but realising this potential requires coordinated efforts to unlock investment opportunities, strengthen institutional frameworks, and reform systemic inefficiencies in the port ecosystem that impede trade facilitation, increase logistics costs, and limit competitiveness,” she said.
She said the sector currently contributes less than three per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product, stressing the need for improved data collection and coordination to properly measure and grow its contribution.
“The sector’s contribution to GDP is still below three per cent, far below its potential to drive diversification, job creation, and industrialisation. How do we even measure this contribution to GDP with different figures being touted from administration to administration? Do we have adequate data available at the click of a button? We need to fix that very quickly,” Kosoko said.
According to her, invitations have been extended to the 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory to align state marine activities with federal policies.
“Other institutions invited include the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, Nigerian Export Promotion Council, NEXIM Bank, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Bank of Industry, Bank of Agriculture, and representatives of the Canadian and United States embassies. The summit will be declared open by His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu,” she added.
