Nigerian Maritime Stakeholders Demand End to Dollar-Denominated Port Charges
A quiet but growing rebellion is building inside Nigeria’s maritime sector. Across the industry, from freight forwarders and shipowners to petroleum marketers and aviation operators, stakeholders are raising their voices against one of the most frustrating contradictions in the Nigerian economy: being forced to pay for services on Nigerian soil in United States dollars.
The complaint is simple, but the cost is enormous. Port charges, vessel fees, jetty berths, and shipping dues collected by agencies, including the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, are still being invoiced in dollars, even for transactions that never leave Nigerian shores.
For businesses already operating under the strain of a weak naira and tight foreign exchange access, sourcing dollars to pay for domestic port activity has become an unbearable burden.
The case of Clarion Shipping, a Nigerian-owned vessel operator that launched operations in 2025, puts the crisis in sharp focus. The company charges its customers in naira for moving containers between Nigerian ports.
But the port dues it faces at terminal after terminal are billed entirely in dollars. Moving just 29 containers reportedly cost the company nearly 40,000 dollars in port charges, far more than the naira revenue it earned from the same job.
The company’s regional manager described the situation bluntly: a business running at a near total loss simply because of currency mismatch at the port gate.
The aviation sector is equally frustrated. With the Central Bank of Nigeria having cleared its 850 million dollar backlog and opened clearer repatriation channels, industry voices are now demanding that international airlines pricing tickets in Nigeria do so in naira, arguing that the original justification for dollar-only fares no longer holds any water.
The Federal Government has heard the complaints. A proposal in the Economic Stabilisation Bill put before the National Assembly called for both the NPA and NIMASA to begin collecting their charges, fees, and fines in naira.
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has also pushed for the harmonisation of terminal charges, collapsing 34 separate fee categories into just five, a move aimed at cutting the confusion and cost that pile up on port users.
Development economist Dr Aliyu Ilias argued that the problem runs deeper than ports. He said much of Nigeria’s chronic foreign exchange pressure stems directly from the culture of pricing domestic contracts, salaries, and services in dollars, and called for an outright ban rather than a mere approval process.
For now, the dollar continues to dominate Nigeria’s port invoices. But the industry’s patience is wearing thin, and the calls for change are getting louder. #Nigerian Maritime Stakeholders Demand End to Dollar-Denominated Port Charges#
