National Inland Waterways Authority identifies water transport to ease port congestion

George Moghalu, Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), has proposed functional inland water transportation as a primary solution to mitigate port congestion and reduce the decay of national road infrastructure. Moghalu noted that making waterways operational is essential, as bulk cargo is globally moved via water or rail rather than roads, which are not designed for such heavy pressure.

In a related development, several major stakeholders, including NIWA, the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Dangote Transport, and SIFAX Logistics, have confirmed their participation in the 2026 Transportation Summit. Organized by the Transportation Correspondents Association of Nigeria (TCAN), the summit is scheduled for September 24 in Lagos. The event, themed ‘Unlocking Nigeria’s Economic Growth Through Transportation Logistics’, aims to address bottlenecks in the movement of cargo and passengers and explore multimodal transportation integration.