The Nigerian Ports Authority has restated its readiness to promote indigenous ownership of vessels in line with the ‘Nigeria First’ policy of President Bola Tinubu.

According to a recent statement, the Managing Director of the NPA, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho, stated this during the maiden call of a fully Nigerian-owned container vessel, “MV Ocean Dragon”, at the West African Container Terminal in Onne Port Complex.

Dantsoho explained that apart from the high loading capacity of 349 twenty-foot equivalent units and several other distinctive features of the vessel, “we are fascinated that MV Ocean Dragon is wholly Nigerian, which speaks to the ‘Nigeria first’ policy of President Bola Tinubu and the NPA’s renewed orientation towards Nigerian content development.”

According to him, the vessel can move thousands of gross registered tonnes across African destinations within days.

He stressed that the move signposts Nigeria’s commitment to the dictates of the International Association for Ports and Harbours on multi-modalism and seamless port-hinterland connectivity.

“This gives us great delight, as it supports the rationale behind NPA’s simplified export processes through the Export Processing Terminals conceptualised to link local producers of value in the remotest hinterland to the farthest international centres of demand,” Dantsoho stated.

The NPA boss reiterated that the agency’s port modernisation project and ongoing reform initiatives around the port recognise the need to sustain the enabling business environment that led to the year-on-year attainment of national trade surpluses.

He stated that the coming of the vessel to propel even greater volumes symbolises the fact that the Nigerian business environment is progressively improving.

“With shipping volumes promising to get higher, forward-looking investments such as the one we are gathered here to celebrate will certainly have a big impact in the long run,” he said.

He assured that the NPA will continue to galvanise stakeholder efforts to continuously promote the ease of doing business, all in a concerted bid to optimise the rich blue economy inherent in the nation’s maritime endowments.

The container vessel owned by Clarion Shipping West Africa Limited, an indigenous investor, which has a capacity of 349 TEUs, is scheduled to operate across West Africa and beyond, servicing ports in Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo, Ghana, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Egypt, and South Africa.