The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, has called on the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) to strengthen its system integrity as a critical step toward boosting revenue generation and improving service delivery.
Oyetola said integrity-driven systems are not optional but an economic necessity, noting that public institutions with transparent and efficient structures attract investment, improve compliance, and reduce revenue leakages.
The minister spoke on Monday in Abuja at a capacity-building workshop for NIWA board members, management, and area managers.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Fatima Sugra Mahmod, Oyetola said institutions that have transformed their fortunes globally did so by fixing governance gaps, automating operations, and enforcing accountability.
“Public institutions struggling with inefficiency and low revenue can become commercially viable by tightening governance, automating processes, eliminating discretionary abuses and insisting on performance. When the system works, revenue follows,” he said.
Oyetola identified revenue leakages, weak regulatory enforcement, inefficiencies in licensing and tariff administration, poor data management, and safety lapses as major challenges confronting NIWA.
According to him, these weaknesses not only limit revenue but also undermine the Authority’s capacity to deliver on its mandate, including dredging projects, the operationalisation of river ports, waterways safety, and private sector participation.
“Every naira lost to inefficiency or poor planning is a naira taken away from dredging our channels, maintaining navigational aids, enforcing safety standards and unlocking the economic value of our inland waterways,” he said.
The minister stressed that strengthening system integrity must go beyond rhetoric, urging NIWA to institutionalise transparency, trace financial flows end-to-end, enforce tariffs consistently, and ensure audit findings lead to corrective action.
He also called for leadership by example, warning that there must be zero tolerance for misconduct and institutional complacency.
Oyetola urged NIWA to leverage technology to reform its operations, saying digital platforms for licensing, tariff collection, and monitoring would reduce human discretion and improve real-time decision-making.
“Technology offers NIWA a powerful lever for reform. Automation will enable the institution to function predictably and efficiently, but this must be supported by clear governance frameworks, performance metrics and consequence management,” he added.
The minister further challenged the Authority to rethink its approach to revenue generation, describing Nigeria’s inland waterways as economic corridors that must be responsibly monetised through user charges, concessions, partnerships and value-added services.
“The Federal Government alone does not have the fiscal space to fund all dredging projects, port infrastructure and safety needs. NIWA must significantly increase its internally generated revenue to fulfil its mandate,” he said.
Explaining steps being taken to boost revenue, NIWA’s Acting Managing Director, Umar Girei, said the Authority had commenced full digitisation of its operations to capture all revenue inflows.
“We are going full digitalisation to ensure that we capture all revenues accruing to NIWA,” Girei said.
Ahead of the rainy season, he disclosed that NIWA had deployed special marshals nationwide to enforce waterways regulations and reduce boat mishaps.
According to him, the marshals, previously on duty from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., would now operate beyond daytime hours following observations that many accidents occur at night.
Girei acknowledged that dredging remains capital-intensive but assured Nigerians that funding would be sourced to dredge critical waterways.
Also speaking at the event, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Dr Musa Aliyu, commended NIWA’s efforts to strengthen its anti-corruption framework.
Aliyu noted that the Authority’s operations expose it to corruption risks in areas such as revenue assurance, procurement, concessions and enforcement, adding that ICPC would continue to partner with NIWA to prevent corruption.
