Nigerian freight is a port story before it is anything else. The Nigerian Ports Authority's 2025 performance report put national container traffic above 2.1 million TEU, up 25.7% on the year, on total cargo of 129.3 million tonnes, up 24.8%, across 4,477 ship calls. Transshipment containers rose 205.8% as Lekki began pulling regional boxes that used to move through neighbouring hubs. Yet no Nigerian port has appeared among the world's 100 busiest for nine consecutive years, the last being Apapa at 93rd in 2016. The whole opportunity sits between those two facts: volumes are growing fast from a low base, deep water has finally arrived, and the binding constraint has moved from the berth to the road behind it. This 2026 guide profiles ten providers with the strongest footprint in Nigeria, listed in no particular order, drawn from Nigerian Ports Authority data, audited NGX filings and company reporting.
How we chose this list
This is an editorial guide, compiled from public sources such as annual reports, company accounts, regulatory filings and trade media, rather than from paid placements or our own directory data. We weighed four things:
- Scale in Nigeria: revenue, sites, fleet and employees based in the country.
- Breadth of services: freight forwarding, contract logistics, haulage, parcels and terminal operations.
- Track record: years operating in Nigeria and publicly verifiable results.
- Network: domestic coverage plus international connections.
Figures are the most recent publicly reported at the time of writing. The companies appear in no particular order. A provider further down the page may well be the better fit for your specific lane or freight type.
The 10 companies at a glance
| Company | Type | Known for |
|---|---|---|
| Lekki Freeport Terminal | Deep-water container terminal | Nigeria's only deep-draft box terminal and its emerging transshipment hub |
| APM Terminals Apapa | Container terminal concessionaire | The main container gateway at Lagos Port Complex |
| ENL Consortium | Indigenous multipurpose terminal operator | Breakbulk and roll-on roll-off cargo at Apapa |
| Ports and Cargo Handling Services | Indigenous terminal operator | Tin Can Island Terminal C, refocused on general cargo |
| Josepdam Port Services | Dry bulk and multipurpose terminal | Grain and dry bulk handling at Tin Can Island Terminal A |
| Red Star Express | Listed courier and freight group | Nigeria's largest listed express parcel and courier network |
| ABC Transport | Listed road transport and haulage | A coach operator that has become a freight business |
| C&I Leasing | Listed marine and oil services logistics | Offshore support vessels and outsourced fleet management |
| GIG Logistics | Parcel and e-commerce courier | The default consumer parcel network across Nigeria |
| Dangote Group logistics | Captive industrial fleet | The largest single truck deployment in Nigeria |
Lekki Freeport Terminal
Operated by CMA Terminals, part of the CMA CGM group, Lekki took 40.6% of Nigeria's national cargo throughput in 2025, the largest share of any Nigerian port, having only begun commercial operations in April 2023. Its 16.5 metre draft is the reason, and it shows in vessel size: the average ship calling Lekki in 2025 measured 55,712 gross registered tons.
Scale is still modest against its own capacity. The terminal's deputy chief operating officer put 2024 volumes at around 287,000 TEU and the first half of 2025 at 222,000 TEU, against installed capacity of 1.2 million TEU, so it was running near 20% utilisation and targeting 500,000 TEU for the full year. Transshipment to Togo, Benin, Ghana and Abidjan is the growth story.
Best for: large volumes on big vessels, and West African transshipment.
APM Terminals Apapa
Apapa handled 16.7% of Nigeria's national cargo throughput in 2025 according to the Nigerian Ports Authority, which still makes it the busiest container gateway in Lagos itself. It has been operated by the A.P. Moller-Maersk group under the Ports Authority's landlord concession model since 2005 and 2006.
Its constraint shows up in a single number. The average vessel calling Apapa in 2025 measured 33,251 gross registered tons against 55,712 at Lekki. That gap is draft, not demand, and it is why deep-water cargo has moved east along the coast. APM Terminals does not publish naira revenue for the Nigerian entity, so there is no comparable financial figure.
Best for: importers on mainline services who want discharge close to Lagos and can work within the draft limit.
ENL Consortium
ENL holds the concession, awarded in 2006, for Apapa Terminals C and D, covering berths 6 to 13. Its work is general cargo, breakbulk and roll-on roll-off rather than containers, which is a genuinely different requirement that a box terminal handles badly.
It is a private Nigerian company and publishes no throughput, revenue or quay figures, so it appears here on the terminals it holds rather than on disclosed scale. That is true of most indigenous Nigerian operators and is worth knowing before you try to compare them on numbers.
Best for: project cargo, breakbulk and vehicles moving into Lagos.
Ports and Cargo Handling Services
Part of the SIFAX Group, Ports and Cargo began operations on 10 May 2006 and runs four berths with 795 metres of combined quay and 13 metres of draft. Tin Can Island as a whole took 22.7% of all Nigerian vessel calls in 2025, the highest share of any port, which tells you how much smaller-vessel traffic still routes there.
The company says its recent recovery came from refocusing primarily on general cargo and breakbulk handling rather than competing for containers, with volume and margin the stated priority for 2026.
Best for: breakbulk and general cargo at Tin Can, with an indigenous operator.
Josepdam Port Services
Josepdam won its Nigerian Ports Authority concession in 2006 and operates three berths totalling 484 metres, taking vessels up to 45,000 metric tons, alongside an 8,774 square metre warehouse.
Its equipment list is the tell: pneumatic suckers for grain and bulk, a 45 tonne reach stacker and a 150 tonne crane. If you are importing agricultural bulk rather than boxes, this is the specialist berth rather than a general-purpose one.
Best for: grain and dry bulk importers needing pneumatic discharge.
Red Star Express
Red Star is the best-documented logistics company in Nigeria, because it files audited accounts. For the year ended 31 March 2025, and note that March year end, group revenue was 21.66 billion naira, up 34%, with pre-tax profit of 924.7 million naira, up 71%, and profit for the year of 546.5 million. It has been listed since 14 November 2007 and has no controlling shareholder.
Two caveats. Growth of 34% over that period is close to Nigerian inflation, so it is not necessarily volume growth, and the same applies to every naira figure in this guide. And Red Star is no longer FedEx's licensee in the way it was for nearly three decades: FedEx established a direct commercial presence in Nigeria in December 2022, and Red Star now supplies ground infrastructure under a national network provider agreement instead.
Best for: express parcels and customs clearance where an audited, listed counterparty matters.
ABC Transport
ABC's 2025 filing, which is unaudited and titled as a group draft, shows revenue of 16.3 billion naira, up 29.33%, and pre-tax profit of 1.4 billion naira, more than double the prior year.
The segment split is the interesting part. Loads and waybills brought in 5.3 billion naira and haulage 4.8 billion, against 3.2 billion for passenger transport. Freight now clearly outweighs the coaches the company is named after, and its haulage arm runs dedicated work for customers including Lafarge Africa.
Best for: domestic inter-state cargo and dedicated manufacturer haulage.
C&I Leasing
For 2025 the company reported audited gross earnings of 50.15 billion naira, up from 36.74 billion, with pre-tax profit of 2.98 billion and post-tax profit of 3.91 billion after a tax credit. Total assets stood at 141.8 billion naira and shareholders' funds at 51.1 billion. It has been listed since 1997.
Marine is described as its largest contributor to both revenue and total assets, but no marine segment figure and no vessel count is published, so treat the offshore business as clearly material but unquantified.
Best for: oil and gas operators needing offshore marine support under a listed entity.
GIG Logistics
GIG Logistics was incorporated in 2012 as part of GIG Group and runs inter-state courier, same-day and e-commerce delivery through a retail network it describes as more than 150 experience centres, with operations in Ghana, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and China.
Every figure GIG publishes is company-stated and undated, and it files no public accounts, so it appears here on network reach rather than on verified scale. That is an honest description of most Nigerian parcel operators, and a reason to test service on a small volume before committing.
Best for: e-commerce sellers and SMEs needing nationwide retail drop-off.
Dangote Group logistics
Dangote committed 720 billion naira to 4,000 compressed natural gas trucks and a national network of CNG refuelling stations, with trucks arriving from August 2025 and loading at the refinery from 15 September 2025. The company projects 1.7 trillion naira of annual savings and 24,000 jobs, though both are projections rather than results.
It is not a carrier you book with, and the scheme drew a monopoly objection from the petroleum workers union NUPENG which Dangote rejected. It belongs on this list because it is the single biggest force acting on Nigerian road freight rates and on the shift to gas. Dangote also holds Apapa Terminal E through Green View Development, so it is a port landlord as well as a fleet owner.
Best for: not a merchant carrier, but the company reshaping the road freight market you buy in.
Names you might expect that are not on this list
A few companies appear in almost every guide to this market but should not, because their situation has changed:
- Kobo360: Still described in most coverage as Nigeria's leading digital freight platform. It cut staff across seven markets in November 2024 and had largely stopped operating by that December, with a new owner planning a restart from 2025. It is not a network to rely on today.
- Bollore: The name still appears in Nigerian logistics coverage, but MSC completed its acquisition of Bollore Africa Logistics in December 2022 and the business was renamed Africa Global Logistics in March 2023.
How to choose between them
The right provider depends less on overall size than on fit with your freight and lane:
- Containers and deep water: Lekki Freeport for big vessels and transshipment, APM Terminals Apapa for proximity to Lagos.
- Breakbulk and project cargo: ENL Consortium at Apapa, Ports and Cargo at Tin Can Island.
- Agricultural bulk: Josepdam for pneumatic grain and dry bulk discharge.
- Parcels and express: Red Star Express for an audited counterparty, GIG Logistics for retail reach.
- Inland haulage: ABC Transport for dedicated manufacturer freight, with Dangote's CNG fleet setting the rate backdrop.
Whoever you shortlist, get more than one quote, because rates for the same lane can vary widely, and confirm licences, insurance coverage and references for your specific freight type. Our guide to the best websites to find a freight forwarder covers how to run that comparison, and the credentials you can check yourself covers verifying them.
Compare Nigeria logistics providers in one place
The ten companies above are the biggest names, but they are not always the best-priced option for a specific shipment, and independent forwarders often handle SME import and export work more attentively than the majors. CargoLinked's directory lists 974 logistics companies and freight forwarders based in Nigeria, which you can browse by service and location. If you have cargo to move, you can also post your shipment for free and collect quotes from interested forwarders instead of contacting providers one by one.
