NIMASA Unveils N25Trillion Blue Economy Hackathon, Rallies Banks, Investors, Shipowners
The Director-General of NIMASA, Dr Dayo Mobereola (3rd from left) in a group photograph with NIMASA Executive Directors and other stakeholders at a high-level meeting in Lagos on Wednesday.
By DAPO OLAWUNI
The Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) on Wednesday held a high-level interactive meeting with major investors, shipowners, commercial banks and other stakeholders in the Nigerian blue economy space, as part of efforts to unlock the projected N25 trillion potential in the nation’s economy.
Speaking at the meeting held at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, the Director General of NIMASA, Dr Dayo Mobereola, unveiled the agency’s Blue Economy Accelerator Programme (BEAP) and National Innovation Hackathon, which he said would sustainably develop Nigeria’s blue economy potential through innovation, enterprise and investment.
Mobereola said Nigeria’s maritime economy represents a frontier that remains significantly underexploited, noting that the country currently captures less than three per cent of the value generated across the maritime value chain despite its enormous natural endowments.
“I am not here simply to describe a challenge. I am here to invite you to help us correct a historic imbalance and unlock the enormous potential of Nigeria’s blue economy. NIMASA-BEAP is not merely an agency programme. It is a national economic imperative,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria has 853 kilometres of coastline, six major commercial seaports, and a maritime sector supporting logistics associated with more than two million barrels of oil production per day, yet the value captured from these assets remains disproportionately low.
He noted that the Federal Executive Council’s approval of the National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy in May 2025 firmly established the sector as a pillar of Nigeria’s economic diversification, growth and prosperity.
“Our vision is therefore clear: to sustainably develop Nigeria’s blue-economy potential through innovation, enterprise and investment.
This is the purpose of the NIMASA Blue Economy Accelerator Programme—NIMASA-BEAP, being implemented with our Technical Partner, Opolo Global Innovation Ltd,” he stated.
Mobereola illustrated the essence of the programme with the story of a hypothetical young engineer in Port Harcourt, whom he called Amara, who develops a technology capable of significantly reducing vessel turnaround time but lacks access to capital, industry leaders and the regulatory ecosystem needed to scale her innovation.
“Without the right support, her innovation may never leave the laboratory. NIMASA-BEAP is designed to ensure that the next Amara does not face that barrier,” he said, adding that the question was no longer whether Nigeria’s blue economy would be developed, but who would create the solutions, own the opportunities and capture the value.
He called on the stakeholders present to engage with the NIMASA team, identify where they could make the greatest impact, and commit accordingly, noting that the agency’s team was prepared to translate such commitments into concrete next steps, including Letters of Intent.
Also speaking at the event, Mr Nkem Ogbuaku, Director, Opolo Global Innovation Limited, NIMASA’s technical partner on the project, said the blue economy sector holds a N25 trillion potential capable of transforming the nation’s Gross Domestic Product if properly harnessed.
“Over N25trillion opportunities untapped yet looking for somebody who will come to tap them. Just imagine what that N25 trillion will do for this economy. Just imagine what that N25 trillion will berth in terms of job opportunities,” Ogbuaku stated.
He explained that Opolo Global Innovation, working with veterans across various sectors and in partnership with NIMASA, had developed the new economic accelerator programme as a national innovation academy.
He said the Blue Economy Accelerator Programme was designed to identify solutions, ideas, concepts and start-ups within the university curriculum across Nigeria, with a view to incubating and accelerating such talents so they can support the industry, unveil the potential hidden in the blue economy, and become global champions.
Ogbuaku added that Opolo Global Innovation is currently the largest innovation university hub across sub-Saharan Africa, and disclosed plans to partner with more institutions to identify talent. He expressed confidence that the initiative would produce a minimum of ten additional unicorns in Nigeria within the next five to ten years.
He described technology as central to unlocking opportunities for the country’s youth, noting that through the innovation and attraction programme being run in partnership with NIMASA, stakeholders would be able to identify solutions and partners that will position the maritime industry as a major contributor to the Nigerian economy.
On the implementation timeline for the BEAP and Hackathon, NIMASA’s Director of Reforms Coordination and Blue Economy, Nneka Obianyor, said the programme’s credibility rests not on the scale of its launch but on the certainty of the dates attached to it.
She disclosed that following the formal unveiling of the programme by the Honourable Minister, a media engagement drive for national mobilisation would begin, with the call for innovators opening on October 5 and closing on November 13, 2026. Independent experts would then evaluate applications and conduct due diligence between November 16 and December 2, ahead of the National Innovation Hackathon scheduled for December 8, 2026, which will bring together innovators from all six geopolitical zones across thirteen maritime tracks.
Obianyor said the twelve-week accelerator programme would run in the first quarter of 2027 to build the winning ventures, culminating in a Demo Day in the second quarter of the year, where the ventures will be connected to investors, industry players and the market.
She stressed that every stage of the programme has an owner, a budget and a verification mechanism, including grant agreements, disbursement acknowledgements and reach reports.
She said the timeline was designed to convert hope into a schedule and a schedule into a livelihood for young Nigerian innovators working on solutions to maritime challenges nationwide, and called on sponsors, universities, innovation hubs and ecosystem managers to begin mobilising talent immediately, noting that sponsorship tiers are already open.
In his remarks, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, represented by the Director of Marine Innovation, Mr Husseini Shetima Shehu, formally declared the programme open, describing it as a demonstration of profound sense of national pride and deep institutional satisfaction.
Oyetola noted that the global blue economy is currently valued at about three trillion dollars and is projected to exceed six trillion dollars by 2030, a trend he said Nigeria, with its 853 kilometres of Atlantic coastline, 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, the largest network of inland waterways in West Africa, and a decades-old offshore energy sector, is well positioned to benefit from.
He recalled that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu established the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy in 2023, and that the Federal Executive Council further approved Nigeria’s National Policy on Marine and Blue Economy in May 2025, describing the NIMASA Blue Economy Accelerator Programme as the most practical, investable and enduring way of translating those policy decisions into action by building the people who will help build the sector.
The minister commended Mobereola and NIMASA’s management team for what he called a paradigm shift from the agency’s role as a regulator to that of a catalyst for innovation, and urged commercial banks, development finance institutions, maritime industry stakeholders and sectoral ministries, departments and agencies to actively support the accelerator’s alumni through dedicated lending windows, blended finance instruments, mentorship, sponsorship and regulatory fast-track pathways.
“The most prescient investment you make in the next twelve months may be in a twenty-five-year-old founder from Bayelsa, Ondo, Abia, or Katsina with a problem-solving solution,” he said.
The stakeholders present at the meeting took turns to pledge their commitment towards the innovation, even as they commended the NIMASA DG, Dr Dayo Mobereola for beautiful innovations he has brought to the agency.
Those who spoke at the event included; the President of Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS), Alhaji Aminu Umar, President of Shipowners Association of Nigeria (SOAN) Mr Sunny Eja, Managing Director of Starzs Group, Ms Iroghama Ogbeifun as well as representatives from First bank, Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) among others.
