* Otu hails historic milestone; Oyetola tasks large funding
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has described the groundbreaking of the Bakassi Deep Seaport as a defining milestone in Nigeria’s financial diversification, saying it was a strategic nationwide funding.
Represented by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, on the ceremony in Bakassi on Friday, November 13, 2026, the president mentioned the port would open new business corridors, stimulate industrialisation and create jobs.
He recommended Governor Bassey Edet Otu and the folks of Cross River for sustaining the imaginative and prescient and advancing it in direction of actualisation.
Tinubu recalled that the undertaking was conceived in 2014, with an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment developed in March 2015, earlier than receiving renewed impetus beneath Otu.
Designed as a 20-metre-draft facility, the port is predicted to accommodate massive vessels that at the moment bypass Nigerian ports. It can also be linked to a 260-kilometre superhighway to maneuver cargo to markets throughout the nation.
He credited Otu’s willpower with serving to to beat institutional and monetary obstacles, together with efforts to safe a $3.5 billion Afreximbank financing association and formalise the PPP framework in February 2025.
“This is beyond a Cross River dream. It is a Nigerian project. It is a poverty breaker,” he declared.
He harassed that the port would complement, not undermine, Lagos. “Lagos is not our enemy. Lagos is our elder brother in trade. No country eats with one hand. No country carries all its loads on one shoulder. That shoulder will break,” he mentioned.
More than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s international commerce, he famous, passes via Lagos, contributing to congestion and rising prices. A second main maritime gateway, he argued, would strengthen the nationwide financial system: “When Calabar works, Nigeria works on two legs.”
The president mentioned Nigeria had not totally exploited its Gulf of Guinea shoreline, whereas neighbouring nations benefited from commerce Nigerian ports might entice.
The Bakassi undertaking, he maintained, would assist retain regional cargo, increase worldwide market entry and strengthen the nation’s maritime competitiveness.
Tinubu additional noticed that roughly 90 per cent of cargo strikes by sea, but Nigeria handles solely a fraction of regional cargo commerce regardless of its financial weight in West Africa.
The port, he mentioned, would assist shut that hole, cut back dependence on a single gateway and place the nation to seize a larger share of maritime commerce.
He acknowledged the territorial and financial losses Cross River suffered following the Bakassi peninsula ruling and the lack of oil income, however mentioned these setbacks had not diminished the folks’s braveness, hospitality or resilience.
“The peninsula was not the end of your story, but the beginning of your next chapter,” he declared, urging residents to guard the undertaking from political interference and regard it as an inheritance for future generations.
The state governor, Senator Bassey Otu, in his speech, hailed the groundbreaking and credited President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda with offering the decisive federal help that revived the undertaking.
He mentioned political, administrative, authorized and environmental challenges had stalled implementation till Tinubu’s plan to increase and improve maritime corridors created a recent alternative for Cross River.
Lauding Tinubu for guiding the state via the processes resulting in the Certificate of Compliance and closing federal approval, Otu described him as “a bastion of economic diversification and social equity.”
He recalled Calabar’s lengthy maritime heritage, saying the brand new facility would reinforce Cross River’s established littoral standing, including that the undertaking’s approval and supply demonstrated the worth of cooperation between the federal and state governments.
The governor mentioned the state had accomplished preparatory work, together with an Environmental Impact Assessment and hydrographic, geotechnical and geophysical surveys, and secured federal approvals.
The undertaking is to be delivered via a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) association, with an preliminary funding approval of $2.27 billion.
He mentioned logistics, commerce, fishing, delivery, tourism and shipbuilding would profit, positioning Cross River as a Gulf of Guinea maritime hub. The surveys, he added, uncovered flaws within the 1903 navigational charts, which the Federal Government changed on October 1, 2026, affirming the state’s littoral standing.
Otu disclosed that chosen Cross Riverians have been present process specialised coaching for building and operational roles, with information switch deliberate.
He pointed to the state’s three-way financial hall—the airport, seaport and Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway—to facilitate cargo motion and entice buyers.
He invited buyers in maritime and associated industries to benefit from the undertaking’s prospects and the state’s investment-friendly setting, together with a one-stop funding hub and tax incentives.
He described the financial potentialities as boundless and referred to as on improvement companions to assist construct a resilient financial system.
In his goodwill remarks, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Dr Gboyega Oyetola, praised Tinubu’s efforts to unlock Nigeria’s maritime potential, citing the creation of the ministry in 2023 and approval of the nation’s first National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy.
Oyetola disclosed that income generated by companies beneath the ministry rose from N700.79 billion in 2023 to N1.83 trillion in 2025, attributing the rise to improved income assurance and the closure of leakages.
He additionally cited the elimination of piracy in Nigerian waters, approval for modernisation of the six legacy seaports, stronger port governance via the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Act, and Nigeria’s election to the decision-making Council of the International Maritime Organization after nearly twenty years.
He additionally cited the lifting of United States Coast Guard restrictions on Nigerian-bound vessels in August 2026, launch of the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund to shipowners and development in fish manufacturing from 1.1 million to 1.4 million tonnes.
He mentioned Bakassi would enhance market entry and create industrial, funding and employment alternatives. Its integration with the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, he harassed, would improve business viability and prolong advantages throughout Cross River, the South-south and the broader Nigerian financial system.
Oyetola pledged the ministry’s help for a contemporary, environment friendly and environmentally sustainable port. He described the seaport as an necessary instrument for translating Nigeria’s maritime benefits into sustainable development.
The minister mentioned the groundbreaking marks a shift in Nigeria’s maritime geography, providing Cross River the prospect of changing its coastal location and heritage into funding, jobs and sustained financial exercise, whereas serving to Nigeria diversify its financial system, ease stress on present ports and strengthen its position in regional commerce.
