L-R: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, Director General of NPERA, Dr Pius Akutah and Dr Emeka Akabogu SAN.

By FRONTLINE REPORTERS

Shipping companies operating at Nigerian ports have come under scrutiny for allegedly defying existing regulations by continuing to collect container deposits from importers and freight forwarders, despite the prohibition introduced by the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025, signed into law by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The issue was brought to the fore by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr Emeka Akabogu, who called on the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) to enforce compliance with the law and end what he described as an illegal practice that has continued to impose financial burdens on cargo owners.

Akabogu spoke on Friday while delivering a keynote address at the Network of Nigerian Maritime Journalists (NNMJ) Unity Conference in Lagos. The conference was themed, “Seaports Modernisation, Trade Facilitation and Revenue Generation under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Administration.”

He explained that Section 203 of NIIRA 2025 abolished the upfront cash container deposit system, replacing it with a mandatory container insurance arrangement or an insurance-backed protection framework. Under the new provision, importers, clearing agents and freight forwarders are no longer expected to deposit huge sums of money with shipping companies as security for the return of empty containers. Instead, the required protection must be obtained through a licensed Nigerian insurance company.

Despite the legal provision, Akabogu disclosed that shipping companies were still including container deposits in their invoices. He said his review of several debit notes as recently as the previous week showed that the charges remained a regular feature of shipping transactions.

“In 2025, Nigeria enacted the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act, a very important legislation that many people have not properly interrogated. It addresses a longstanding problem in the maritime industry, particularly the issue of container deposits faced by cargo owners.

“What the Insurance Act has done is to abolish the collection of container deposits. Yet, as of last week, I reviewed a range of debit notes and still found container deposits listed as important items in the invoices. It is illegal. Container deposits charged by shipping companies today are illegal, but they are still being collected,” he said.

The maritime lawyer urged industry stakeholders to speak out against the practice and challenge shipping companies that continue to impose the charges. He, however, acknowledged that some importers and freight forwarders were reluctant to report such violations because of concerns about their own business practices.

Nevertheless, he stressed that industry operators must not remain silent, insisting that reporting violations to the appropriate authorities was necessary to protect cargo owners and ensure compliance with the law.

“Right now, it is NPERA’s responsibility as the economic regulator to get the shipping companies to do the right thing,” Akabogu added.

The development places NPERA under pressure to demonstrate its regulatory authority and protect Nigerian importers and freight forwarders from charges that the new insurance legislation has outlawed.

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council was transformed into the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency following the signing of its enabling legislation by President Tinubu on June 19, 2026. The new framework is expected to strengthen the agency’s regulatory authority, moving it beyond its previous advisory functions to the enforcement of binding rules governing commercial activities within the nation’s port system.

Stakeholders are now looking to NPERA to translate the provisions of the law into concrete enforcement action, end the continued collection of container deposits and ensure that shipping companies operating in Nigeria comply with the country’s regulatory framework.

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