APM Terminals has signed a Memorandum of Understanding committing it to exclusive negotiations over the long-delayed Badagry Deep Seaport, a proposed $2.5 billion greenfield project that could expand Nigeria's deepwater capacity, attract larger container vessels, and strengthen the country's position as a maritime gateway for West Africa, though no final investment decision has yet been made.

Few infrastructure projects in Nigeria have generated as much anticipation and as many false starts as the Badagry Deep Seaport. More than a decade after it was first conceived, one of the world's largest terminal operators has just signed on to give the project another serious shot.

What Happened
APM Terminals has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Badagry Port Development Limited and Quinn McGrath Marine and Environmental Services Limited to explore the development of the proposed Badagry Deep Seaport in Lagos State. The agreement was signed in Copenhagen, Denmark, during a visit by Nigeria's Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, who led a federal government delegation to Denmark to strengthen maritime cooperation and attract investment into Nigeria's port infrastructure.

It is important to be precise about what this agreement actually commits the parties to. The MoU commits the parties to exclusive negotiations over the proposed greenfield port project, but it represents only an agreement to explore the development, and no final investment decision, construction timetable or investment value has been announced. On the Nigerian government side, Oyetola described the development as an important step, with the talks following the signing of the MoU representing an important step towards advancing the proposed Badagry Deep Seaport project.

The agreement was signed by senior figures on both sides. The MoU was signed by A.P. Moller-Maersk Group Chief Executive Officer, Vincent Clerc, on behalf of APM Terminals, while Didi Ndiomu, Managing Director of Badagry Port Development Limited and Quinn McGrath Marine and Environmental Services Limited, signed for the project promoters. Ndiomu framed the moment in ambitious terms, stating "investing in maritime infrastructure and especially in Badagry as a greenfield port project together with APM Terminals is the beginning of Nigeria becoming the true maritime capital of sub-Saharan Africa."

A Project 14 Years in the Making 
To understand why this MoU matters, it helps to understand just how long Badagry has been stuck in limbo. The Badagry Deep Seaport has been in the works for at least 14 years, and in 2012, when the project was first conceived, APM Terminals was among investors that launched plans for a greenfield port in the area. The project moved through a formal concession stage not long after, since the Federal Government and Lagos State subsequently moved to formalise the project, with an APM Terminals-led consortium signing a concession agreement in 2014. Those original timelines proved far too optimistic, as the plan at the time envisaged construction beginning in 2015 and operations by 2019, but those timelines were not met and the project did not progress to completion.

The project was later revived under fresh government backing. The project was revived under a different framework in 2022, when the Federal Executive Council approved a $2.5 billion concession to develop the port under a build-operate-own-transfer model. That approval gave Lagos State the legal basis to proceed, with the state government receiving authorisation that provides the legal basis for the concession of the Badagry Deep Seaport, following the issuance of the Full Business Case Certificate by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission. This new MoU with APM Terminals puts the company back at the centre of the project more than a decade after its initial involvement.

The Scale of What's Being Proposed
The numbers behind Badagry, as originally approved, describe a facility built for major regional cargo volumes rather than incremental capacity. The $2.5 billion project, funded through a Public Private Partnership, was designed to be built on approximately 496 hectares, with a 2,470 metre quay length container terminal, 560 metre quay length break bulk terminal, 360 metre quay length OSB terminal and a minimum of 18 metre depth. Some later descriptions of the surrounding free trade zone put the footprint even larger, with the Deep Sea Port described as part of a free trade zone area seated on approximately 1,104 hectares of land, comprising the Port Zone, Logistics Zone, Industrial Zone and a Power Hub.


The long-term revenue projections tied to the original concession framework are substantial. Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said the proposed Badagry seaport would generate $53 billion over the 45-year period it would be operated by concessionaires, with the port also expected to create an additional 250,000 jobs and provide training and development opportunities for the state.

Why Deepwater Capacity Matters for Nigeria
The core rationale behind Badagry centers on a structural limitation in Nigeria's existing port network. APM Terminals executives said the proposed Badagry project would provide additional deep-water capacity for larger container vessels and create new transhipment opportunities for Nigeria. Igor van den Essen, APM Terminals' managing director for Africa and Europe, tied the project directly to congestion relief at Nigeria's older facilities, saying "developing Badagry as a greenfield project will further ease congestion in city ports and open new opportunities."

That congestion problem is tied to a broader regional cargo pattern that Nigeria has struggled to fully capture. NIMASA Director-General Bashir Jamoh has pointed to the scale of the opportunity, noting that with over 70 per cent of cargo bound for West and Central Africa destined for Nigeria, the country holds a significant commercial advantage that additional deepwater capacity could help maximise. The project would add to Nigeria's existing, still-developing deepwater infrastructure rather than starting from zero, since Lekki Deep Sea Port began commercial operations in 2023 and has since attracted larger container vessels, while Apapa remains the country's principal established container gateway.

What Comes Next, and What Remains Uncertain
Despite the milestone nature of this MoU, meaningful uncertainty remains about the project's path forward. Details on the project's financing structure, construction timeline and final development arrangements are expected to emerge as negotiations between the parties progress, and industry analysts have previously pointed to real obstacles that stalled the project for years, including the difficulty of securing financing and attracting investors for such a large-scale and complex project.

APM Terminals has also signaled that its interest in Nigeria extends beyond Badagry alone. The company also discussed extending its concessions at both its existing Apapa and Onne terminals with the Nigerian government during the Denmark visit, with van den Essen adding that longer-term investment in those existing concessions would support Nigeria's ambitions to expand trade and attract investment.

Why It Matters
For Nigeria, the project would add to a growing concentration of deepwater port infrastructure around Lagos, potentially giving the country a stronger competitive position against regional rivals like the ports of Cotonou, Lomé, and Tema, which have historically captured cargo destined for the Nigerian market due to congestion and inefficiency at Lagos ports. President Bola Tinubu's broader trade ambitions are explicitly tied to this kind of partnership, since partnering with global terminal operators like APM Terminals to explore strategic greenfield developments such as Badagry Port is central to the president's vision of positioning Nigeria as West Africa's trade hub.

What Flipbz Thinks
Flipbz sees this MoU as a genuinely significant, if still preliminary, step for a project whose history is defined by missed deadlines and stalled financing. The involvement of APM Terminals, backed by A.P. Moller-Maersk's global scale, gives Badagry a credibility it lacked in earlier iterations, but the explicit framing of this agreement as a commitment to exclusive negotiations rather than a final investment decision means the hardest questions, financing structure, construction timeline, and environmental and community considerations around the Gberefun area communities, remain unanswered. Given that the project has now missed at least two previous target completion dates since 2012, the more meaningful signal for Nigeria's maritime sector will be whether these exclusive negotiations convert into a binding concession agreement within a defined timeframe, rather than another multi-year holding pattern.

What to Watch
Industry observers should watch whether the exclusive negotiations between APM Terminals and Badagry Port Development Limited produce a definitive concession agreement with a clear financing structure and construction timeline in the coming months. It will also be worth tracking whether APM Terminals' parallel discussions about extending its Apapa and Onne concessions move forward alongside Badagry, since a broader, multi-terminal Nigerian investment commitment from the company would signal deeper long-term confidence than the Badagry MoU alone.

The Bottom Line
APM Terminals' MoU for the Badagry Deep Seaport represents the most credible step this long-delayed project has taken in years, bringing one of the world's largest port operators back into a development that has struggled to move past paper agreements since 2012. Whether Badagry finally becomes the deepwater gateway its backers have promised, or joins the project's own history of missed milestones, will depend on how quickly exclusive negotiations translate into a binding financing and construction commitment.