Stakeholders in Nigeria’s maritime industry have raised concerns over the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)’s reported plans to terminate existing Cargo Survey (CS) contracts that were lawfully awarded in 2019 for 10 years, due to expire in 2029.

The alarm followed a September 2025 letter signed by NPA Managing Director Abubakar Dantsoho, citing “operational needs and efficiency” as justification for the planned cancellation — despite no record of contract breaches by the affected firms.

According to the Maritime Integrity Movement (MIM), the NPA neither engaged the contractors in dialogue nor raised any issue of poor performance before moving to terminate the agreements.

“This is not the first time the NPA has attempted to scrap the agreements,” said Lucky Abegunde, convener of the group. “It had earlier sought approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) for selective re-procurement, but the BPP rejected the request and advised the NPA to follow open competitive bidding as required by the Public Procurement Act of 2007.”

The movement alleged that after sustained internal pressure, the BPP eventually approved restricted procurement on certain contracts — allegedly benefiting companies linked to cronies of the NPA leadership.

Abegunde further accused the NPA of withholding invoices and creating procurement uncertainties to weaken existing agreements. He warned that abruptly cancelling contracts without any breach could expose the federal government to costly litigation and financial losses.

The group called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to probe what it described as a fraudulent attempt to cancel and reallocate the cargo survey contracts.