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Blue Economy in Nigeria and the African Continent
Abstract
The blue economy offers a substantial prospect for achieving sustainable development and fostering economic expansion throughout Nigeria and the African continent. The region exhibits significant potential for harnessing its maritime assets across several industries, including fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, shipping, renewable energy, and biotechnology. This potential is mostly attributed to the region’s expansive coastlines and ample marine resources. This article provides an analysis of the blue economy in Nigeria and Africa, specifically highlighting the primary challenges, opportunities, and strategies essential for its expansion.
This research explores the socioeconomic and environmental importance of the blue economy, with a particular focus on its ability to address urgent challenges such as ensuring food security, reducing poverty, creating employment opportunities, and enhancing resistance to climate change. This is accomplished by utilizing established scholarly works and empirical data. Amidst the potential benefits, there exist certain challenges that impede the achievement of a prosperous blue economy. These challenges encompass inadequate institutional capacity, unsustainable exploitation of resources, regulatory constraints, and concerns about marine security.
To fully harness the capabilities of the blue economy, governments, business sector entities, civil society organizations, and international collaborators must collaborate in a coordinated manner. Key goals for encouraging sustainable blue economy development include policy reforms, investment in infrastructure and technology, capacity-building initiatives, and stakeholder collaboration. Moreover, there is a strong focus on the significance of incorporating environmental sustainability, social equality, and governance principles into blue economy efforts to guarantee inclusive and fair development.
Nigeria and other African nations can harness the transformative power of the blue economy to propel their countries towards a more prosperous, resilient, and sustainable future by adopting a holistic approach that balances economic development with environmental conservation and social well-being.
... Nigeria's blue economy focuses on the sustainable development and utilization of ocean resources to drive economic growth, enhance livelihoods, and maintain a healthy marine ecosystem. With a coastline stretching approximately 853 kilometers and an Exclusive Economic Zone extending 200 miles, the country possesses significant potential in marine-based sectors, including fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, shipping, and offshore energy production (Muhammed et al, 2024) The blue economy plays a crucial role in Nigeria's efforts to diversify its economy and decrease dependence on oil revenues. Fisheries and aquaculture provide livelihoods for millions, while maritime trade, facilitated by key ports in Lagos, Port Harcourt, and Calabar, makes a substantial contribution to the nation's GDP. ...
... The Nigerian blue economy is made up of several ley sectors that are responsible for harnessing the country's vast coastal and marine resource. These sectors include fisheries and aquaculture, maritime transport and shipping, offshore energy, tourism and coastal recreation, marine biotechnology, marine security, seabed mining, marine and coastal infrastructure, as well as environmental services (Muhammed et al, 2024). Fisheries and aquaculture consist of Coastal and inland fishing industries, aquaculture farms, and seafood processing contribute to food security, employment, and exports, the maritime transport and shipping sector consist of cargo handling, shipbuilding, ship repair, and port operations at major ports like Lagos, Calabar, and Port Harcourt. ...
The Nigerian blue economy is considered new, owing to the fact that it has not been fully explored and developed. However, it shows huge prospects and potential that is capable of impacting the Nigerian economy in so many ways. Its sectors consist of fisheries and aquaculture, maritime transport and shipping, offshore energy, tourism and coastal recreation, marine biotechnology, maritime security, seabed mining, maritime and coast infrastructure, and also marine environmental service. Its prospects is demonstrated in economic diversification, employment opportunities, food security, renewable energy potential, enhanced maritime trade, and environmental sustainability. the opportunities it provides are numerous including expansion of maritime trade, fisheries and aquaculture development, offshore renewable energy, coastal tourism and recreation, job creation, maritime security services, and international collaboration. However, it brings challenges such as illegal maritime activities, inadequate infrastructure, environmental degradation, lack of policy and regulatory frameworks, overfishing and unsustainable practices, limited investment, inadequate skilled workforce, and security concerns. In its quest to attain sustainability, frameworks such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN SDGs), The Paris Agreement on Climate Change, The Green New Deal (Global and Regional), The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (1992), Sustainable Fisheries and Blue Economy Policies, and The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are further taken into consideration, which help in providing policy frameworks for different implementation. The methodology approach used is a systematic literature review
... Chitosan can be modified by grafting or crosslinking to enhance its mechanical properties, bioactivity, and interactions with other food ingredients. For example, functionalization can improve its solubility, making it more effective in various food matrices [45]. However, the methods used for functionalizing chitosan are still in their infancy, and more research is required to identify efficient, cost-effective techniques for tailoring its properties to specific food applications. ...
Mushroom-derived chitosan is emerging as a promising alternative to traditional crustacean-derived chitosan, offering several advantages, including better biocompatibility, sustainability, and allergen-free properties. This study explores the various extraction methods for mushroom chitosan, such as enzymatic, chemical, and green extraction techniques, highlighting their respective benefits and limitations in terms of yield, quality, and environmental impact. The functional properties of mushroom chitosan, including antimicrobial, antioxidant, and film-forming abilities, position it as a valuable material in food preservation, packaging, and functional food applications. The ecological and economic advantages of mushroom-derived chitosan suggest its potential to replace synthetic and animal-derived alternatives in the food industry. Moreover, its biodegradability and non-toxic nature offer significant implications for sustainable food engineering, helping to reduce reliance on synthetic plastics and chemical preservatives. The material’s roles in extending shelf life and reducing food waste contribute to addressing environmental and food security challenges. Despite scalability challenges and the need for further optimization of extraction methods, mushroom chitosan holds considerable promise in broader food system integration. As consumer demand for natural and eco-friendly products grows, mushroom chitosan’s potential in sustainable food engineering continues to expand, with ongoing research essential for unlocking its full capabilities in both industrial applications and functional foods.
... This includes using environmentally friendly methods for vector control, such as biocontrol methods, or promoting sustainable agricultural practices to prevent zoonotic diseases. For example, in regions where the human-wildlife interface increases the risk of zoonotic diseases like Ebola, local strategies must integrate conservation efforts and wildlife management into disease control frameworks [14]. ...
Infectious disease control and environmental sustainability are interconnected challenges requiring integrated solutions. Traditional approaches often overlook their synergies, limiting long-term effectiveness. This study explores win-win strategies that simultaneously enhance public health outcomes and promote environmental sustainability. A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted, analyzing sustainable health interventions, policy frameworks, and technological innovations. Key areas such as integrated vector management [IVM], water, sanitation, and hygiene [WASH] programs, and climate-resilient health strategies were examined. Findings highlight that IVM reduces vector-borne diseases while minimizing pesticide resistance, WASH interventions prevent waterborne diseases and reduce pollution, and climate adaptation strategies mitigate disease risks while promoting ecological balance. Policy recommendations include decentralized health governance, incentives for sustainable practices, and global financing mechanisms. Technological innovations such as mobile health [mHealth], big data analytics, and eco-friendly health technologies enhance sustainability and efficiency. Integrating sustainability into infectious disease control is critical for long-term global health security. Future research should focus on scalable solutions and interdisciplinary approaches to maximize health and environmental benefits.
Realising the goal of the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (Ocean Panel) to catalyse the transition to a sustainable ocean economy depends on coordinating and managing humanity’s relationship with the ocean and the broader environment. This task requires organising information that currently is often disorganised, spread across multiple government agencies or in a few cases not yet available. National ocean accounts would provide countries with the information needed to guide ambitious and broad- based plans to develop ocean economies and to capitalise on marine opportunities (European Union Directorate-General of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and Joint Research Centre 2018; Economist Intelligence Unit 2015), while protecting the ocean for generations to come in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals, most notably SDG 14, ‘Life below Water’. The ‘blue-ing’ of the ocean economy—or making the ocean economy sustainable—requires ensuring that the ocean continues to provide at least the current levels of opportunity; ‘measuring the ocean economy gives a country a first-order understanding of the economic importance of the seas’ (Economist Intelligence Unit 2015). The old adage goes that ‘what gets measured, gets managed’, or more accurately, that ‘if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it’. Sound decision- making requires organised information.
Ocean and coast based economic activities are increasingly being recognized as key drivers for supporting global economies. This move towards a “blue economy” is becoming widespread in view of the paucity of land resources being experienced globally by promoting sustainable and inclusive economic growth using oceanic resources. The sustainability of these ocean-based activities must however be intricately linked with the existence of a comprehensive and cohesive legal framework to align marine conservation with the extractive and exploitative endeavors. This paper analyses the potential for a blue economy in Nigeria and examines the adequacy of the existing legal regimes on marine environmental protection meant to reduce the risks of intensified ocean-based activities resulting into unsustainable environmental impacts. The paper submits that deriving sustainable wealth from ocean-based activities in Nigeria is achievable given the existing legal framework for marine environmental protection in the country. It however recommends the need to further tighten the noose around the implementation protocols of these laws to better integrate the health of the ocean ecosystem into the development of the country’s ocean resources.
Deep-sea tailings disposal (DSTD) and its shallow water counterpart, submarine tailings disposal (STD), are practiced in many areas of the world, whereby mining industries discharge processed mud- and rock-waste slurries (tailings) directly into the marine environment. Pipeline discharges and other land-based sources of marine pollution fall beyond the regulatory scope of the London Convention and the London Protocols (LC/LP). However, guidelines have been developed in Papua New Guinea (PNG) to improve tailings waste management frameworks in which mining companies can operate. DSTD can impact ocean ecosystems in addition to other sources of stress, such as from fishing, pollution, energy extraction, tourism, eutrophication, climate change and, potentially in the future, from deep-seabed mining. Environmental management of DSTD may be most effective when placed in a broader context, drawing expertise, data and lessons from multiple sectors (academia, government, society, industry, and regulators) and engaging with international deep-ocean observing programs, databases and stewardship consortia. Here, the challenges associated with DSTD are identified, along with possible solutions, based on the results of a number of robust scientific studies. Also highlighted are the key issues, trends of improved practice and techniques that could be used if considering DSTD (such as increased precaution if considering submarine canyon locations), likely cumulative impacts, and research needed to address current knowledge gaps.
The Blue Economy is regarded as the decoupling of socio-economic activities and development from environmental degradation and optimizing the benefits which may be derived from marine resources. The attitude of achieving long-term prosperity by a country or a region befitting the wellbeing of all citizens and the mankind preserving the environment, especially the sea is the basis of the Blue Economy. Blue Economy means the use of sea and the use of its resources for sustainable economic development and the concept is new in Bangladesh and South Asia. This paper is a compilation of researches already carried out in the region by extracting the data and works which are available somehow related to the topic and relevant to thoughts and activities in this region. The paper cites a few highlights on how the Blue Economy Concept fits into the sustainability development framework while balancing its economic, social and environmental benefits and how does it contribute in GDP. The paper aims at generating thoughts and actions towards investigating various opportunities of the Blue Economy, ways of cashing the benefits as well as identifying challenges and ways of overcoming them.
The paper concludes that Bangladesh as well the South Asia have potentials to follow the Blue Economy Concept. However it requires strong political willingness and commitments, which already have been demonstrated in Bangladesh. It needs rigorous researches and promoting social awareness.
This study proposes a model of interwoven careers. This topic stems from interviews that showed that although future deck officers expect their future career at sea to last from 10 to 15 years and that the rest will be spent on shore, the maritime transport industry’s only goal is to attract and retain them as seagoing officers. This ambivalent situation leads us to develop a model of interwoven careers that is new. It takes into account both the individual and the organization. This is neither a traditional career model nor a boundaryless model. We used Morin’s complexity theory to understand boundaries, which move “within” organizations when, for instance, maritime industries offer deck officers to work on shore and sometimes at sea, and “across” organizations when they develop partnerships to help their employees attain their goals as well as retaining them in their organization.
Nigeria has a coastline of approximately 853km facing the Atlantic Ocean. This coastline lies between latitude 4o 10' to 6o 20' N and longitude 2o 45' to 8o 35' E. The Nigerian coast is composed of four distinct geomorphology units namely the Barrier-Lagoon Complex; the Mud Coast; the Arcuate Niger Delta and the Strand Coast. In 1956, Royal Dutch Shell discovered crude oil at Oloibiri, a village in the Niger Delta, and commercial production began in 1958. Today, there are about 606 oil fields in the Niger Delta, of which 360 are on-shore and 246 offshore. Nigeria is now the largest oil producer in Africa and the sixth largest in the world, averaging 2.7 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2006. Nigeria's proven oil reserved is 35.2 billion barrels. Nigeria's economy is heavily dependent on earnings from the oil sector, which provides 20% of GDP, 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of budgetary revenues. Since the discovery of oil in Nigeria in 1956, the country has been suffering the negative environmental consequences of oil exploration and exploitation. Between 1976 and 1996 a total of 4647 incidents resulted in the spill of approximately 2,369,470 barrels of oil into the environment. In addition, between 1997 and 2001, Nigeria also recorded a total number of 2,097 oil spill incidents. In 1998, 40,000 barrels of oil from Mobil platform off the Akwa Ibom coast were spilt into the environment causing severe damage to the coastal environment. Several oil spill management policy and efforts are in place to reduce the menace of oil spill incidents in the country. Some of these policies and efforts were made by the Federal Government, Non governmental agencies and oil firms in the country. The use of oil trajectory and fate models is also incorporated in oil spill management policy in the country. We have developed a new oil spill trajectory model. The results from a hypothetical simulation with the model from a point around OPL 250 located about 150km off the Nigerian coastline shows that the simulated oil spill for wet season reached the shore (around Penington River) after 104hours (about 4.5 days). Also during the dry season, the results from the model indicate that the oil spill reached the shore (at the entrance of Benin River) after 162hours (6.5days).
Even though Tanzania has been engaging in domestic and international sea-based economic activities for centuries , there are no specific statistical data on the contribution of the blue economy to the Tanzania's economy reinforcing the importance of this work. The purpose of this paper is to present economic, social, and ecosystem values that the blue economy resources generate in mainland Tanzania by using the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit (BEVTK). In 2020 the major blue economy industries in Tanzanian contributed USD 7.2 billion to the gross value added (GVA) and employed over 2 million individuals. The value of ecosystem services was approximately USD 104.24 billion in the year 2020, with large permanent freshwater lakes contributing significantly (74.87%). The Composite Social Index Value of BE was estimated at 48.64, indicating that the blue economy contributes positively to the social development of mainland Tanzania. Among the negative outcomes of social indicators, the BEVTK generated a youth unemployment (12.2%) and a gender inequality index (53.0). The BEVTK presented here can be applied to another country context where decision-makers have similar interests in assessing the blue economy components and their contribution to the national economy.
The concept of Blue Economy (BE) is recognized as central for sustainable development
that incorporates socio-economic benefits and ecological conservation. However, in
Africa, much of the emphasis on BE is placed on economic gains; as a result,
traditional livelihoods and small-scale local operations are outcompeted by international
corporations and government initiatives, with little or no regard for social inclusion and
environmental sustainability. We argue that successful BE initiatives in Africa accentuate
the involvement of local communities and promote sustenance of the natural ecosystem.
We define success in terms of the sustainability balance among ecological, social and
economic aspects. Drawing on extensive expert experiences, observational data and
literature review of case studies across the African continent, we highlight two critical
findings. First, large scale BE initiatives prioritize economic gains at the expense of
environmental degradation and the exclusion of local communities. Second, using the
full spectrum sustainability (FSS) evaluation, we show that successful BE interventions
considered ecological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional objectives. Drawing
on these case studies, we propose the adoption of a collaborative framework which
amalgamates the top-down and bottom-up approaches to BE management. Achieving
the goal of successful blue growth in Africa is now even more challenged by the
implications of COVID-19 on the BE sectors. Reimagining and rebuilding a resilient
BE in Africa post-coronavirus will require a strong political commitment to promoting
a balance between economic, social and environmental benefits in line with the African
Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Business Process Outsourcing can be aptly described as the process of forging a contractual relationship with external supplier for the provision of capacity that has been previously undertaken within an organization. In the global oil and gas industry, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has emerged in contemporary times as a potent tool in their operational mix. This is particularly hinged on the imperatives to find a delicate balance between rising global demand, diminishing reserves in some of the world's major oil fields, while managing distribution and operating costs. The collapse of crude oil prices from US30.00 and even below in early 2016 has reinforced outsourcing. Empirical studies reveal that outsourcing of non-core activities may result in 25% cost saving associated with on-/near-site operations and as much as 50-75% for offshore operations compared to the cost of engaging in same activities in-house. Apart from cost-cutting, other benefits associated with BPO include a stronger focus on core competencies; improved regulatory conformity and compliance; as well as access to a larger talent pool and novel technologies. The oil and gas industry has emerged as the cornerstone of Nigeria's economy, accounting for about 70% of annual government revenue and more than 90% of the nation's foreign exchange reserves. Since the 1990s, outsourcing has assumed an increasing dimension in the nation's oil and gas industry. Empirical studies reveal, for example, that up until the early 1990s, employees in the oil industry comprised about 70% and 30% of permanent and temporary employees, respectively. The temporary employees were initially focused on non-core activities. However, in recent times core activities are increasingly contracted to service providers, reversing the structure of employment in the industry by 2010, with 40% of permanent employees, while 60% were permanent employees. The increasing replacement of permanent employees with temporary ones has fueled concern in the industry, led by labour unions, which have expressed concern about the sub-standard welfare of contract workers. This development has led the Federal government of Nigeria to issue guidelines on staff contracting and outsourcing in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
As an emergent and rapidly propagating concept through which the hydrological sphere of the earth is identified as a new economic possibility, the Blue Economy is traveling globally and is being localized differently. Adding to Winder and Le Heron’s interrogation of the Blue Economy as an investment-institutional project that creates new biological–economic knowledge and relations, I argue that the Blue Economy is necessarily a complex governmental project that opens up new governable spaces and rationalizes particular ways of governing. By demonstrating how China’s marine economy is being assembled and practiced in ways that not only open up new space for accumulation but also create new spatial rationalities that rearrange people and resources, I urge geographers to be attentive to the questions of space, rationality, and power in specific geographic contexts where the Blue Economy is being localized.
Governments and regional agencies of the Pacific Islands are strengthening their commitment to sustainable oceans management through proactive policies and programs. The Blue Economy concept is increasingly being invoked, yet clarity on definitions and implementation steps remain vague. This paper reviews reports, academic literature and regional speeches to develop a Blue Economy conceptual framework which is then applied to three case studies from the fisheries sector – small scale fisheries, urban fish markets and onshore tuna processing. The cases illustrate an imbalance in attention paid to key components of the Blue Economy and missed opportunities for integration across scales, time and stakeholders with a few noteworthy exceptions. Issues of power, agency and gender remain weakly addressed even in the most recent initiatives. While clearly defining components of the Blue Economy provides a valuable tool for assessing coverage of key elements of sustainable ocean management, it is less obvious that the new label, Blue Economy, significantly advances practice beyond existing sustainable development frameworks. A proliferation in terms adds more complexity to an already challenging management space. Nevertheless, the conceptual framework is useful for structuring evaluations of practice, and helping to reveal missing ingredients necessary for the sustainable development of oceans.
The 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development had as one of its two main themes ‘a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication’. The Conference did not agree upon a definition of ‘green economy’ and limited itself to ‘[encouraging] each country to consider the implementation of green economy policies’ as one of the different approaches available to achieve sustainable development. Nevertheless, its outcome document provides a host of indications about the challenges and opportunities to achieve sustainable development through the green economy. This article offers a conceptual and legal perspective on the green economy by investigating the evolution of the related policy debate and focusing on whether the text on the green economy adopted at Rio+20 provides new insights on the implementation of sustainable development, notably in relation to environmental integration, intra-generational equity, human rights and corporate accountability.
This introduction to the special issue on Earth Summit implementation calls attention to the significance of the review of progress achieved in the implementation of the oceans and coasts agenda of the 1992 Earth Summit (the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)) conducted by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in April 1996. It poses major questions facing the Commission, introduces the major themes discussed in the special issue and makes some assessments on the nature and pace of UNCED implementation.
The Maritime Commons: Digital Repository of the World Maritime University: Towards an Integrated Ocean Governance Regime and Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal 14 in Nigeria
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Overcoming the Market Constraints to On-Grid Renewable Energy Investments in Nigeria
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Marine greens: Roles in climate change and global warming mitigations
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A study of Nigeria’s Blue Economy Potential with Particular reference to the Oil and Gas Sector
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The Blue Economy: 10 years, 100 innovations, 100 million jobs
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Illegal fishery in Africa and the recommendations in the context of Turkey-Africa relations
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The first global integrated marine assessment. United Nations
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The maritime industry of Nigeria. Challenges and sustainable prospects
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Harnessing the Potentials of Blue Economy for Sustainable Development of Nigeria
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Nigeria heads out to sea in search of safer future for oil development
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