In 2023, the Nigerian government established the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, a long-anticipated step toward harnessing the country's vast maritime potential. For decades, fragmented oversight had left the sector underutilised despite Nigeria's 850-kilometre coastline, six port complexes, and positioning along key global shipping corridors. The new ministry signals a shift from passive oversight to active strategy.
No serious maritime nation leaves its waters unmanaged. For too long, Nigeria did.
Today, Nigeria is aiming for a $1 trillion economy. That ambition cannot be achieved through the energy and digital sectors alone. The maritime economy, ports, shipping, inland waterways, fisheries, tourism, and marine finance must be positioned as a core growth lever. The creation of the Ministry and the recent approval of the National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy in May 2025 reflect a policy recognition of this reality.
But recognition is only the beginning. Execution will depend on how deeply the Ministry is willing to intervene in the structures supporting value creation and retention, including financial infrastructure.
A Vision with Pillars — But Still Missing Foundation
The Ministry's four-year implementation plan rests on four pillars: improving port infrastructure, promoting sustainable investment, strengthening maritime governance, and transforming port operations. These goals are supported by concrete targets, including dredging 2,000 km of inland waterways, establishing two deep-seaports by 2027, and enabling $2 billion in offshore renewable energy investment by 2025. In addition, the Ministry plans to create 3 million jobs in four years through expanded activity in fishing, tourism, and coastal enterprises.
These are significant objectives. But there is a missing link that threatens to undercut these gains: the persistent externalisation of marine risk through foreign Protection and Indemnity (P&I) insurance.
P&I is not peripheral. It is the backbone of liability management in maritime operations, covering environmental damage, crew injury, third-party claims, and legal defence. No vessel involved in offshore energy or cargo transport can operate without it. And yet, virtually every P&I policy covering these risks in Nigeria is arranged through foreign mutuals based in Europe and Asia. The majority of legal claims are processed abroad. The premiums are paid in foreign currency. And the reserves are held in jurisdictions far removed from Nigeria's waters, courts, or economy.
The consequences are not theoretical. Since 2018, Nigeria is estimated to have ceded over $4 billion in P&I premiums. These losses are concentrated in one sector in particular: Oil & Gas, the very sector where local content laws mandate domestic participation and retention. The vessels that transport crude, supply offshore rigs, or support subsea operations are all high-risk, high-value, and high-premium. These vessels should form the foundation for a locally domiciled P&I solution.
Some may point to the presence of Nigerian brokers acting as intermediaries. But brokerage is not localisation. Correspondence does not equal control. True localisation requires underwriting capacity, reserve accumulation, legal engagement, and claims management to occur within the Nigerian financial and legal ecosystem. Until then, the risk is not truly Nigerian — even when the waters, operations, and consequences are.
The Local Content Act was designed to address precisely this problem. It mandates that all insurable risks tied to Oil & Gas operations be placed with Nigerian insurers, and it forbids offshore placements without written approval from NAICOM. But like many progressive Nigerian laws, enforcement has been inconsistent. The opportunity has slipped quietly, but consistently, through the cracks.
Why Marine Insurance Must Become a Strategic Enabler
Marine insurance and P&I in particular are more than the cost of doing business. It is a strategic tool for building institutional resilience, legal capacity, and financial sovereignty. In countries like Norway, the United Kingdom, and Japan, domestic P&I mutuals were foundational to developing strong maritime ecosystems. These mutuals not only retained capital but also developed deep professional expertise in marine risk, in law, claims, loss adjustment, surveying, and finance.
Nigeria now has an opportunity to follow suit. And Oil & Gas, with its established upstream operations, its steady vessel activity, and its regulatory oversight, is the natural place to begin. A sector-led P&I initiative, anchored in the needs of the energy value chain, offers the best path to credibility, scalability, and early impact.
The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy can play a catalytic role. It can bring together NAICOM, NCDMB, NIMASA, and key upstream players to coordinate support for a phased establishment of a Nigerian P&I mutual, even if initially backed by global reinsurers. Such an institution would keep premiums in-country, grow domestic capacity, and strengthen Nigeria's legal and regulatory control over incidents occurring in its waters.
In the longer term, a Nigerian P&I facility could even extend coverage to neighbouring West African markets, positioning the country not just as a participant but as a provider in the African maritime finance space.
A Policy Window That Must Not Close
To its credit, the Ministry has moved quickly in its first phase. The release of the national policy, the push for inland port development, the target to train 4,000 seafarers, and the operationalisation of systems like the International Cargo Tracking Note (ICTN) all reflect a government prepared to go beyond rhetoric.
But a blue economy cannot run on hardware alone. Ports, dredgers, and vessels are only part of the picture. A robust blue economy requires the financial and legal systems to match, systems that not only regulate but also protect and monetise risk. Marine insurance is one of the most important of these systems. And for Nigeria, it remains unexplored.
This is the moment to correct that.
The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was created to consolidate ambition, policy, and coordination in a sector long left behind. It now has the roadmap, the legal authority, and the inter-agency access to push forward strategic reforms. The localisation of marine insurance, beginning with P&I in the Oil & Gas sector, should be next on the agenda.
Nigeria's waters carry our commerce, our crude, and increasingly, our economic future. If we cannot insure it ourselves, we will never truly control it.
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