In pursuant of green ports agenda, the National Association of Stevedoring Operators (NASO) has expressed its commitment to actively engage the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Nigeria Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to develop an industry-wide equipment upgrade roadmap that is calibrated to what Nigerian stevedoring operators can realistically achieve.
The group said that such an equipment upgrade model should be supported by access to appropriate financing frameworks, including through the Green Climate Fund (GCF) pipeline that the Development Bank of Nigeria is now accessing.
President, National Association of Stevedoring Operators (NASO), Bolaji Sunmola, who made this call at the SCAN Dockworkers’ Day 2026 organized by the Shipping Correspondents Association of Nigeria in Lagos, said, green practices must not become an unfunded mandate imposed on operators who lack the capital to comply, adding that “That would be neither fair nor effective”.
He said: “We must also be frank: the equipment our industry deploys, the cranes, the forklifts, the terminal tractors, the cargo handling machinery contributes materially to the emissions footprint of port operations. NASO is committed to engaging actively with the NPA and NIMASA to develop an industry-wide equipment upgrade roadmap…”
Recall that the International Maritime Organisation’s revised GHG (greenhouse gas) strategy has set unambiguous targets a minimum 20% reduction in shipping emissions by 2030, and net-zero aspirations by 2050.
Sunmola therefore called on the government to anchor green standards in the Nigeria’s port modernisation agenda.
He said: “We equally call on the Honourable Minister and the NPA leadership to ensure that Nigeria’s ongoing port modernisation programme becomes the platform on which green performance standards are firmly anchored. Modernisation that expands cargo handling capacity without simultaneously addressing environmental performance is modernisation that is only half-complete.
“We therefore urge that every new infrastructure investment, operational upgrade, and every regulatory framework emerging from this modernisation drive incorporates binding green performance indicators on emissions reduction, equipment standards, waste management, and cargo dwell time,” Sunmola stated.
Noting that a green port that exposes its workers to toxic emissions, unsafe working conditions, and degraded welfare is a contradiction in terms, he said, “The sustainability agenda must extend to the sustainability of livelihoods. NASO stands firmly for a port ecosystem that is simultaneously efficient, environmentally responsible, and humane in its treatment of those who stand at its front line every single day,”
The group however commended the shipping correspondents for their commitment to growing the Nigerian port system.
“SCAN has, over the years, performed the invaluable function of chronicling the story of Nigeria’s maritime industry, its triumphs, its challenges, and its continuing evolution. Today, by choosing the theme “Green Ports: Sustainable Practices for Dockworkers,” SCAN has once again demonstrated its capacity to both report the conversation and also shape it. We commend you unreservedly for this bold and timely choice,” he said.
From NASO’s standpoint, he said “the single most powerful green port initiative available to Nigeria today requires no imported technology and no capital that we do not already possess. It requires operational efficiency. When stevedores discharge and deliver cargo faster-when dwell times fall, when vessels wait less at anchorage, when trucks do not idle for days at the port gate the environmental benefit is automatic, measurable, and immediate. The carbon that is never emitted is the greenest of all,” he said.
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