On July 2, 2025, history was made in Lagos, Nigeria, as Clarion Shipping West Africa Ltd officially unveiled the Ocean Dragon —Nigeria’s first fully indigenous container vessel—at a landmark ceremony held at Five Star Logistics Terminal, Tin Can Island Port.

The event, which celebrated the conclusion of Ocean Dragon’s Maiden Voyage from Qingdao, China, to Lagos, Nigeria, was attended by a strong coalition of maritime regulators, logistics partners, and financial institutions, including NIMASA, Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Five Star Logistics Ltd, Zenith Bank, Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC, and project partner Direkçi Group.

“We are here to unveil the first 100% indigenously-owned container shipping vessel in Nigeria, Clarions Ocean Dragon,” said Bernardine Eloka, Vice President, Clarion Shipping West Africa Ltd. “We have come to proffer a solution to the headache that the movement of container, port to port in Nigeria has been causing for our customers. 70% of the crew are Nigerians and we’re hoping that by the end of this year, 100% of the crew will be Nigerians.”

Upon its arrival in Lagos early in July, MV Ocean Dragon is fully ready to service ports across Nigeria and West Africa, bringing efficiency, predictability, and indigenous capability to a sector long dominated by foreign vessels. “For customers who are frustrated, because they have goods to ship across Africa, but they first have to go to Europe, we’re assuring them that the solution is here now and they are welcome to make use of it,” shared Innocent Eloka, President, Clarion Shipping West Africa Ltd.

The vessel has received high marks from its onboard leadership. “After I took evaluation of this vessel, I believe that it is a strong vessel well managed and operated by the Clarion company,” said Wang Bang Cheng, Superintendent, Ocean Dragon. “It was a successful voyage from China all the way to Lagos and we are satisfied with the engineers and ship’s crew.”

The new service will enhance domestic connectivity and ease road congestion. “We’re able to feed containers from the major ports in Lagos to Onne, Calabar, and Onitsha,” said Chiedozie Eloka, Director of Engineering. “This is going to reduce the number of trucks on the road, making our roads safer. Ocean Dragon is going to call pretty much all the ports along the coast within Nigeria and other West African countries. We envision routes going down to South Africa as well as up North towards Libya and Egypt.”

The Ocean Dragon has also necessitated additional improvements in Clarion’s fleet, tracking and networking technology, and ground-based equipment. “We’ve revamped our website to make it more informative for customers,” explained Ada Eloka, Managing Director. “We’ve had inquiries already through this update and we’re getting traction from using technology to make our business known.”

“Today is a revolution starting with this vessel,” added Ahmed Mohammed, Strategic Partner. “International companies are currently taking 90% of the market share… We believe this is just the beginning, and a lot of Nigerian companies will follow suit.”

This historic moment has been documented in the national media, including The Nation, Punch, The Sun, and Shipping Position, with praise for Clarion Shipping's bold step in enhancing indigenous participation in the sector.

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