Weak indigenous fleet capacity, underused cabotage or flag-protection regimes, and largely manual, non-digitised port operations are common across many coastal emerging markets, ceding cargo handling to foreign carriers and diverting transhipment volume to better-equipped regional hubs.

Case in point, Nigeria: the indigenous shipping fleet has collapsed from 24 active vessels in 2005 to fewer than four by 2024, leaving foreign carriers to handle roughly 95% of the country’s cargo despite two decades of cabotage law, while a $700 million vessel financing fund created to support indigenous shipowners has been repeatedly delayed in disbursement.

Equvora Advisory 58 Result 2

What EMCS Offers

  • Vessel acquisition, leasing, and sale-and-leaseback advisory
  • Port and terminal modernisation and digitalisation advisory
  • Marine asset deployment for oil & gas support and coastal logistics vessels
  • Cabotage compliance and financing-access advisory
  • Marine insurance and risk structuring

Industry Snapshot

Nigeria's indigenous shipping fleet has collapsed from 24 active vessels in 2005 to fewer than four by 2024, leaving foreign carriers to handle roughly 95% of the country's cargo despite two decades of cabotage law intended to protect local operatokrs. A $700 million Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund created to support indigenous shipowners has been repeatedly delayed in disbursement, and Nigeria's ports remain largely manual, contributing to the loss of regional transhipment hub status to Lomé, Togo.

Equvora Advisory 63 Result

Challenges and Industry Gaps

  • Long-term, patient capital for vessel acquisition remains scarce, and existing support funds are slow to disburse
  • Weak enforcement and bureaucratic delay have blunted the intended impact of cabotage protections for local shipowners
  • Manual, non-digitised port operations reduce cargo competitiveness and accelerate cargo diversion to neighbouring ports
  • Rising refining and export volumes, including new demand generated by domestic refining capacity, are increasing pressure on already-thin indigenous vessel fleets in several markets

How do We fill the gap

  • Apply the same structured leasing and sale-and-leaseback model EMCS uses in aviation to vessel acquisition, reducing upfront capital barriers for indigenous shipowners
  • Provide dedicated advisory support to help qualified operators navigate and access cabotage financing funds and related incentives, wherever they exist
  • Advise on port and terminal digitalisation as a discrete, fundable project stream rather than a byproduct of broader infrastructure spend
  • Deploy marine support vessels in coordination with EMCS’s existing oil & gas and rig-deployment relationships, capturing demand created by the sector’s own growth