DP World has signed letters of intent worth more than US$7 billion to build a deep-sea port and adjacent economic zone in Nigeria's Ogun State, in a move aimed at breaking the chronic congestion gripping the Lagos port corridor.

The Dubai-based terminal operator's group CEO, Yuvraj Narayan, and Ogun State Governor Prince Dapo Abiodun signed the memoranda on September 24 in Paris, with Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu present. The signing covers the planned Gateway Deep Seaport at Ogun Waterside and the roughly 10,000ha Blue Marine Special Economic Zone around it — both still at letter-of-intent stage rather than binding contracts.

The port's specifications explain the commercial logic. According to the Nigerian presidency, the facility will feature a four-kilometre-long quay and a natural draft of 18m. That depth would let the port receive larger vessels than Nigeria's existing gateways can handle and add transhipment capacity for Nigerian trade. It would also relieve pressure on the ports of Apapa and Tin Can Island, which have long constrained cargo flows through Lagos.

The details come from a press statement by Kayode Akinmade, Special Advisor to the Ogun State Governor for Information and Strategy.

Broader logistics play

The Gateway Deep Seaport forms part of a wider logistics and industrial development. The initial investment of more than US$7 billion is spread across the port and the Blue Marine Special Economic Zone. Once fully realised, the development could create more than 50,000 direct jobs, according to the Ogun State government.

Connectivity plans extend beyond the quay wall. The federal government intends to support road, rail and energy links to the project. The nearby Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is intended to serve as a key transport artery connecting the planned port with Lagos and the wider Nigerian hinterland — a critical factor for any new gateway seeking to pull cargo away from established corridors.

For shippers and forwarders serving West Africa, the prospect of additional deep-water capacity addresses one of the region's most persistent bottlenecks. Apapa and Tin Can Island regularly suffer congestion that delays vessel turnaround and inflates landed costs. A greenfield port with an 18m draft would also position Nigeria to capture transhipment volumes that currently move through competing hubs.

For DP World, the project extends a footprint across African gateway infrastructure, though the letter-of-intent status means financing, final investment decisions and construction timelines remain open questions. Details on capacity in TEU terms have not been disclosed.

"The Gateway Deep Seaport is the critical infrastructure that must support the viability of the zone," President Tinubu said at the signing. The Ogun State government expects the combination of port and economic zone to support production, export and logistics activity in the region.

The next signal for the market will be whether these letters of intent convert into a final investment decision, and on what timeline — the step that determines when Nigerian shippers can realistically expect new deep-sea capacity to reach commercial operation.