Dangote Industries is planning to acquire its own fleet of vessels as the conglomerate seeks to address persistent shipping constraints and rising transportation costs affecting the movement of its products to West and Central African markets.
The company said inadequate access to shipping capacity had become a major obstacle to its regional export ambitions, forcing it to explore alternative ways of moving goods across the sub-region.
Head of International Trade and Export at Dangote Cement, Sada Ladan-Baki, disclosed the plan on Tuesday at a seminar on non-oil exports.
Ladan-Baki said the company had faced considerable difficulties securing vessels for its export operations, citing an instance when Dangote could not obtain a vessel to move a 1,000-metric-tonne shipment to Ghana.
She said the experience underscored the need for the conglomerate to develop its own maritime transportation capacity.
“We are moving forward towards getting our own ships in order to do this business,” she said.
According to her, transporting goods by road has also presented serious challenges because consignments destined for Ghana have to pass through other countries, particularly Benin and Togo.
Such movements, she explained, attract taxes, levies and other charges in transit countries, pushing up logistics costs and weakening the competitiveness of Nigerian products in regional markets.
The decision to invest in shipping comes as Dangote’s operations increasingly depend on maritime transportation.
Its $20bn refinery in Lagos has become a major driver of Nigeria’s petroleum-product exports by sea. The US Energy Information Administration recently reported that Nigeria’s seaborne petroleum-product exports had increased seven-fold since 2023, with the rise driven mainly by production from the Dangote refinery.
The refinery is expected to handle about 600 vessels annually, comprising ships delivering crude oil and those transporting refined petroleum products to domestic and overseas destinations.
Reacting to the planned vessel acquisition, President of the Indigenous Shipping Association of Nigeria, Otunba Shola Adewumi, said Dangote had traditionally relied on foreign-flagged vessels because Nigeria did not have enough ships capable of handling the scale and volume of its operations.
Adewumi welcomed the move but cautioned that vessel ownership came with substantial responsibilities beyond the initial purchase.
“Dangote is a Nigerian and a businessman, and he is free to do whatever he wants. It is very easy to buy a ship, but maintaining the ship is a different ball game,” he said.
He urged the conglomerate to register the vessels under the Nigerian flag, arguing that doing so would help increase the country’s national fleet and boost its influence in international shipping.
“We also hope that Dangote will put those vessels under the Nigerian flag so as to add more tonnage to the national fleet and increase Nigeria’s influence in the international shipping community,” Adewumi said.
He further noted that the move could generate employment for Nigerian seafarers and other professionals working across the maritime and international trade sectors.
Beyond easing Dangote’s logistics challenges, the proposed investment could strengthen Nigeria’s maritime capacity if the vessels are registered locally and operated with a significant proportion of Nigerian personnel.
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