Foreign Fleets Dominate Nigeria's Maritime Support Industry

Captain Ladi Olubowal, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Seamat Maritime Integrated Services Limited, expressed concerns about the dominance of foreign fleets in Nigeria's maritime support industry. Despite Nigeria being Africa's largest oil and gas producer, a significant share of essential maritime support services is handled by foreign-owned fleets.

Olubowal noted that Nigeria earns revenue from its natural resources, but much of it leaves the economy due to reliance on foreign logistics and marine services. He highlighted the UTM FLNG project as a pivotal opportunity for Nigeria to reshape its maritime economy and develop indigenous ship capacity, which could retain billions of naira in economic value.

Olubowal pointed out that successful maritime nations, like Norway and Qatar, built their maritime industries through deliberate investments in local capabilities. He stressed that Nigeria possesses 200 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves and that developing the industry around gas is crucial for economic transformation.