Nigeria looks to SEZ to unlock blue economy potential

FTZ News: Nigeria’s oil and gas free zones regulator is to take centre stage at a major maritime conference this week, as the country seeks to position special economic zones as drivers of its still underdeveloped blue economy.

Usman Bamanga Jada, managing director and chief executive of the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), will chair the 2026 annual conference of the Maritime Correspondents’ Organisation of Nigeria (MARCON) on Thursday. The event, themed “Special Economic Zones as Catalysts to Sustainable Blue Economy”, is expected to bring together government officials, regulators, investors, port operators and industry experts.

The choice of Jada reflects the growing political and commercial attention being paid to free zones as instruments of industrialisation and diversification. OGFZA oversees Nigeria’s specialised free zones focused on oil and gas-related activities, a sector that has long dominated the country’s export earnings while contributing relatively little to broader manufacturing or local value addition.

Conference organisers say the gathering will examine how special economic zones can attract investment, stimulate trade, create jobs and open new opportunities in shipping, logistics, marine services and coastal industries. Paul Ogbuokiri, chairman of the MARCON conference planning committee, described OGFZA as one of Nigeria’s more effective investment promotion agencies and said Jada’s experience would add weight to discussions on practical strategies.

Nigeria has for years promoted free zones and special economic zones as tools to bypass some of the country’s well-documented constraints — unreliable power, cumbersome bureaucracy and high logistics costs. Results have been mixed. While some zones have attracted notable projects, many have struggled with infrastructure gaps, policy inconsistency and limited linkages to the wider economy.

The focus on the “blue economy” adds a newer dimension. Nigeria’s extensive coastline and maritime domain remain under-exploited relative to their potential. Advocates argue that well-designed free zones near ports and coastal industrial clusters could support ship repair, marine logistics, fisheries processing, offshore services and related manufacturing. Critics counter that without reliable power, efficient ports and coherent regulation, new zones risk becoming isolated enclaves rather than engines of broader growth.

Jada’s authority has sought to present free zones as platforms for technology transfer, local content development and export-oriented industry. Whether the conference produces concrete policy proposals or remains largely discursive will be closely watched by investors and operators already active in Nigeria’s maritime and free zone sectors.

The event comes at a time when several African governments are revisiting special economic zones as part of wider industrial strategies, often drawing lessons from relatively successful models in countries such as Benin, Morocco and Ethiopia. Nigeria’s ability to translate conference rhetoric into functioning, competitive zones will depend less on the quality of the speeches than on the harder tasks of infrastructure delivery, regulatory predictability and genuine private-sector participation.

For now, the MARCON conference offers a high-profile platform for the free zone agenda. The test will come in what follows./.