Publications

Nigeria’s most significant insurance reform in a generation has, perhaps unintentionally, made the establishment of a domestic P&I club more difficult to achieve. That is not a criticism of the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA), signed into law in August 2025. NIIRA 2025 is a genuine and long-overdue modernisation of a framework that had not kept pace with the sector it governs. However, embedded within the provisions of the NIIRA 2025 is a fundamental…

In global shipping, power is often measured in fleets, ports, and cargo volume. But the true determinant of maritime sovereignty lies elsewhere, in the quieter realm of insurance. A nation may move millions of tonnes of cargo, police its waters, and operate modern terminals, but still depend on foreign institutions to price its risk, settle its claims, and define its liabilities. That is the contradiction at the heart of most emerging maritime economies—physical control without…

A vessel may load crude in Port Harcourt, discharge containers in Mumbai, or bunker in Mombasa. Yet when a collision, oil spill, or injury claim arises, the decision on liability is often made in London. This is the quiet asymmetry of global shipping. Emerging markets now account for much of the world’s maritime activity, yet the financial and legal mechanisms that govern maritime risk remain concentrated in developed economies. Nigeria embodies this contradiction. It is…