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By Steve Agbota
The Sea Empowerment and Research Centre (SEREC) has called for reforms of barge operations to boost revenue and job creation in the country.
The Centre revealed that Nigeria can generate approximately N80 billion annually from properly regulated barge licensing, inspection, and certification through vessel registration and inspection fees, cargo movement levies, inland waterway terminal licensing, and environmental compliance charges.
This is even as the Centre called for the immediate creation of a dedicated directorate under the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and institutional reform of Nigeria’s barge operations, saying the recent Mile 2 pollution incident reinforces the need for firm administrative structuring of barge operations.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by the Head of Research, SEREC, Eugene Nweke, and made available to Daily Sun. He said that structured barge logistics can directly and indirectly create 45,000–60,000 new jobs within 3–5 years, including 10,000 skilled technical and maritime safety jobs, 25,000 dockside, mechanical, and logistics staff, and 15,000 ancillary and local supply-chain roles (fuel, repair, catering, waste management).
By unlocking safer inland logistics, he revealed that Nigeria could attract N250–300 billion ($180–200 million) in private investments over the next decade from shipping companies, dredging firms, terminal operators, and barge manufacturers.
On environmental and economic impact, he said every 100 cargo-laden barges can remove 1,000 trucks from Nigerian highways, reducing road maintenance costs and CO2 emissions by up to 30% annually.
On the Mile 2 pollution, he said SEREC expressed deep concern over the recent incident of a sunken barge and chemical pollution at the Mile 2 Jetty, Lagos, where continuous rainfall has exacerbated toxic leakage into the waterways, threatening marine life and public health.
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“According to verified reports from other maritime monitors, industrial chemicals stacked at Clarion Shipping Terminal and surrounding locations have been seeping into adjacent waters with no visible regulatory intervention.
“SEREC views this as a critical wake-up call for the Nigerian government to strengthen the institutional and administrative architecture of barge operations, which remain weakly coordinated across multiple agencies, leaving dangerous lapses in safety, pollution control, and accident response.
“SEREC’s advocacy position: establish a Dedicated Directorate of Barge Operations and Logistics Services (DBOLS). SEREC hereby calls on the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to establish a Directorate of DBOLS, headed by a Director and supported by a Deputy Director for technical coordination and logistics reforms,” he explained.
He said the directorate would enforce mandatory registration, inspection, and certification of all commercial barges and tugs, institute national safety and environmental standards for barge design, loading, and operations, and deploy vessel tracking systems (AIS/GPS) for inland waterway traffic monitoring.
“Supervise terminal licensing, accident reporting, and pollution control. Drive training, certification, and job creation within the marine logistics sector. The economic and employment potentials of regulated barge operations are immense. Establishing the DBOLS and its regulatory infrastructure is estimated at ₦8–10 billion for initial staffing, digital systems, and safety equipment across six major inland maritime zones,” he added.
SEREC underscored that many nations have transformed their inland waterways into engines of logistics and job creation through structured barge management.
“SEREC respectfully urges the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy to approve the creation of the Directorate of Barge Operations & Logistics Services (DBOLS), appoint a Deputy Director of Barge Operations to immediately coordinate regulatory and safety functions, establish an inter-agency emergency task force to address the Mile 2 pollution and strengthen monitoring nationwide, and fast-track the National Barge Modernisation and Regulation Framework (NBMRF) under the Blue Economy agenda.
“Barge operations are the arteries of our inland maritime economy. With proper regulation, they can decongest highways, reduce transport costs by up to 40%, create tens of thousands of jobs, and protect our marine ecosystems,” he added.
