NPERA addressing operational inefficiencies, arbitrary charges

David Adebayo

The enactment of the Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) has marked another watershed since the port reform programme of 2006.
Since 2014, the Federal Government mandated the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) to operate as an interim port economic regulator without a substantive statutory framework.
This, subsequently led to the enactment of the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) Bill into law to give legal backing to the council’s roles as it lacked strong legal power to set official rules or punish violators.
However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu last week finally signed the Nigerian NPERA Bill 2026 into law after many rigorous efforts in the National Assembly.
Prior to the president’s ascent, successive assemblies have tried for 12 years to pass a permanent law to repeal the old NSC 1978 decree.
However this year, the Senate, successfully passed the NPERA Bill into law on 28th of April 2026, marking the most significant Nigeria maritime regulatory reform in over a decade.
Crucially, the law will enable NPERA to assume economic regulatory functions currently exercised by NSC, including tariff-setting, licensing and dispute resolution for port services.
According to the Executive Secretary of NSC, Dr Pius Akutah, the assent of the NPERA by the president has paved the way for the establishment of a dedicated economic regulator for ports.
Akutah was full of appreciation to the President for the assent.
He said: “Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency Act, 2026. Thank you Mr. President for making it a reality.”
Although, details of the assent remain unclear but it is believed that the new law will now empower the NSC as the ports economic regulator.
For instance, its core purpose is to separate the commercial and economic oversight of ports from the operational and safety mandate historically exercised by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
The NPERA framework, having repealed the NSC Act
(Cap N133, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria) is fully backed with a lot of regulatory powers as it would assume economic regulatory functions currently exercised by the NSC, including tariff-setting, licensing and dispute resolution for port services.

Power
In the law, a Senior a
Advocate of Nigeria, Emeka Akabogu noted that the NPERA will have the authority to review, approve and, where necessary, set maximum tariffs for port services, including stevedoring, terminal handling, storage, pilotage and towage charges as port service providers will be required to submit proposed tariff schedules to NPERA for approval before implementation.
This, according to him, represents a fundamental shift from the current regime, where tariff-setting has been largely left to concessionaires operating under the terms of their concession agreements with the NPA.
Moreover, he explained that the law introduces a licensing regime for entities providing port-related services as operators, including terminal operators, stevedoring companies, cargo handling firms and ancillary service providers, would be required to obtain and maintain licences issued by NPERA.
For instance, Akabogu noted that the licence conditions were expected to include service-quality standards, tariff transparency requirements, financial reporting obligations and non-discrimination provisions.

Comments
Commenting on the new law, a public affairs analyst, Chief Nasiru Ibrahim noted that before the new development, multinational shipping lines and terminal concessionaires knew this systemic weakness and exploited it by routinely dragged the council to court to stall enforcement, buy time, and protect their arbitrary local charges.
Nevertheless, he said that NPERA had completely dismantled that analogue era of compromise, noting that this was not the creation of a fresh, bloated bureaucratic agency but rather a statutory evolution.
He explained: “The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has officially been weaponised into an independent, executive umpire backed by the full raw enforcement powers of an Act of Parliament. The immediate message to the maritime community is loud and direct; the era of arbitrary tariff regimes and parallel pricing structures is officially dead.
“Under NPERA framework, the agency holds exclusive statutory powers to approve, review, or freeze port costs. Any shipping line or terminal manager attempting to introduce unapproved local handling fees or manipulative demurrage timelines will face immediate and binding legal sanctions.”
Specifically, he said that the operational boundaries were now mathematically clear, stressing that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) remains the technical landlord, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) retains control over safety and marine security as NPERA steps in as the supreme financial and economic regulator.

The Senate
In April, the Senate passed the revised Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) Bill during plenary as the passage followed a motion moved by Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, and seconded by the Minority Leader, Abba Moro.
The bill seeks to establish the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as an independent economic regulator of Nigerian ports and to address operational inefficiencies, reduce arbitrary charges, promote competition, improve cargo movement from ports to hinterlands and overall maritime services.
Before it was passed into law, NPERA Bill was first rejected by the president and transmitted back to the legislators for amendment of certain provisions that were observed to conflict with the Nigerian Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025.
Prior to this, the NSC’s Executive Secretary, Dr Pius Akutah, had earlier updated that the House of Representatives had effected the necessary corrections and sent it to the Senate for concurrence.
At the Committee of the Whole, Bamidele told the Senate that fundamental issues were identified requiring fresh legislative action, following critical examination by the Ministry of Justice, explaining that a technical committee, comprising the Senate, House of Representatives and legal drafting experts from the Directorate of Legal Services, had convened.
In addition, he stressed that the committee was mandated to resolve the issues raised after the detailed scrutiny of the bill and recommend necessary corrections for legislative reconsideration.
Relying on Orders 1(b) and 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders, the lawmakers rescinded their earlier decision on the bill, as previously passed as they
further recommitted the bill to the Committee of the Whole for careful consideration, amendment and passage, in line with legislative procedures.
Subsequently, the lawmakers considered and passed the bill clause by clause after exhaustive deliberation at the Committee of the Whole.
In conclusion, as the new law is expected to address administrative layer of port operations,
inefficiencies in transaction processes across multiple agencies in the maritime sector, documentation, customs procedures, and other procedural bottlenecks, contributing between 60 and 73 per cent of total cargo dwell time, the Federal Government should provide fund to enable the agency discharge its mandate in line with the global best practices.