Nigeria: Cabotage fund relaunched after 20 years, up to $25 million per shipowner

The cabotage fund will allow each eligible shipowner to access financing of up to 25 million dollars for the purchase of vessels, subject to the evaluation and approval provided for by the scheme. At this stage, 92 applications have been recorded, 20 have been forwarded to partner banks, and only one has passed the review stage to be sent for final approval.

Created by the Nigerian Cabotage Act of 2003, the CVFF is intended to support local ownership of vessels and strengthen the participation of Nigerian companies in coastal and offshore transport. Several disbursement attempts have been announced over the years, but shipowners have still not effectively accessed the fund.

The government presents this recovery as a lever to reduce the cost of maritime financing, modernize local fleets, and enable Nigerian operators to better compete with foreign companies on coastal and offshore contracts. Adegboyega Oyetola believes that the mechanism could support more than 30,000 direct and indirect jobs in shipyards, maintenance, engineering, and maritime logistics.

A disbursement yet to be realized

Political authorization does not yet mean that the funds have already been disbursed. Each file remains subject to review by the lending institutions and to the validations provided for under the CVFF framework. The fact that only one file out of 92 has reached the final approval stage shows that the main challenge now is the speed of execution.

To accelerate the process, the number of approved lending institutions was increased from five to twelve, and an application portal was opened in January 2026. NIMASA had indicated in the spring that it had received more than 60 applications; the total announced in September is now 92.

The government also wants to link ship financing to the development of maritime skills. The minister stated that 222 sailors have benefited from free professional training, 333 cadets have completed their academic training, and 135 others have obtained their competency certificates as part of the Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme.

The next decisive step will be the transition from the first approved file to the actual financing of a vessel. It is on this point that the real restart of a fund, awaited since the early 2000s by Nigerian shipowners, will be measured.