By Ikugbadi Oluwasegun
Adegboyega Oyetola, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, has directed the transfer of the Inland Dry Port functions of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council to the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), In a bid to create a clear separation between port economic regulation, development and operations.
In a statement by Bolaji Akinola, his Special Adviser, Oyetola also directs the immediate constitution of a ministerial committee to oversee the transition of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council into the newly established Nigeria Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA), following President Bola Tinubu’s assent to the NPERA Act, 2026.
The directives are part of measures to establish a clear institutional framework for the new port economic regulatory regime, eliminate overlapping responsibilities and ensure that agencies under the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy operate within clearly defined mandates.
The NPERA Act, signed by President Tinubu in August, formally establishes a substantive economic regulator for Nigeria’s port sector, bringing to an end a two-decade wait for a dedicated statutory port economic regulator.
With the enactment of the law, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, which had operated as the country’s interim port economic regulator since 2014, transmutes into NPERA.
