The Ogun State Government and Dubai-based ports operator DP World have signed memoranda of understanding in Paris on 24 September for a deep-sea port and a large industrial zone, in a deal the Presidency said could draw more than $7 billion in initial investment.
President Bola Tinubu witnessed the agreement signing ceremony which within hours, had been pulled into Nigeria’s familiar argument over who benefits from major maritime infrastructure.
The MoUs cover the Gateway Deep Seaport at Ogun Waterside and the Ogun State Blue Marine Special Economic Zone. Officials said the proposed port would have a four-kilometre berth and an 18-metre draft, deep enough for larger post-Panamax vessels, and would be integrated with a 10,000-hectare special economic zone for manufacturing, processing, logistics and export activity. At full development, the projects are projected to create more than 50,000 direct jobs.
PresidentTinubu described the agreements as a mix of vision, capital and execution capacity and welcomed DP World as one of the world’s leading port operators. He said the federal government would provide regulatory support and help with road, rail and power links, including the Ogun section of the Lagos–Calabar Coastal Highway.
The port, he said, was meant to ease pressure on the congested Apapa and Tin Can Island corridors and give Nigeria another gateway for trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun who led the state delegation, said officials have long described a deep-sea port on the Ogun coastline as a decades-old ambition.
DP World Group Chief Executive Officer Yuvraj Narayan signed for the company.
The documents remain memoranda of understanding. Public statements did not set out how the $7 billion would be divided, how much DP World itself would put in, or the final ownership and operating structure.
Implementation will still depend on financing, regulatory approvals and construction.
Criticism
The commercial announcement was quickly recast in ethnic terms. A wave of online commentary, including from prominent South-East voices, treated the Ogun deal as further evidence that the Tinubu administration is concentrating Nigeria’s maritime future in the South-West.
Some critics asked why a new multi-billion-dollar facility was being advanced in Ogun while existing ports in the South-East and Niger Delta have struggled for federal attention.
Defenders of the project rejected that reading. One widely circulated opinion argued that a state-level commercial agreement had been turned into a charge that Tinubu is “Yorubanising” maritime infrastructure, and that the accusation was being driven by “vocal elite commentators from the South East.” The piece framed the deal as a legitimate coastal investment, not an ethnic project.
Supporters of the Ogun project say a new deep-draft port next to an industrial zone is a logistics decision, not a tribal one: Lagos is congested, Ogun already hosts factories that need a shorter export route, and states are entitled to pursue investors.
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