Cargo linked to the Dangote Refinery made up an estimated 30.4% of Nigeria’s total port throughput in the first half of 2026, underscoring the facility’s rising influence on the country’s maritime sector.

Data from the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) shows Nigerian ports moved 68.29 million metric tons of cargo between January and June, a 12.2% rise year-on-year. Lekki Port handled roughly 40% of national throughput, with refinery-related operations accounting for 76% of its cargo—an estimated 20.76 million metric tons.

Container traffic climbed 10.3% to about 815,000 twenty-foot equivalent units, while outbound shipments jumped 23.5% to 29.2 million metric tons.

The figures do not distinguish tankers from container ships or quantify how much of the growth the refinery itself drove, and the authority has not disclosed the revenue generated by the refinery’s cargo.