Lekki Port Solidifies Regional Maritime Gateway with Direct CMA CGM Weekly Sailings

By Temitope Adebiyi, Correspondent

The integration of the Lekki Deep Sea Port into CMA CGM’s new direct West African service strengthens the facility’s growing role as a vital regional maritime gateway..

The inclusion of Lekki Port on the KORA EXPRESS rotation is expected to strengthen the port’s position as a regional maritime gateway, giving importers and exporters another direct shipping option to Europe rather than routing cargo through neighbouring West African ports.

Based on the weekly service, KORA EXPRESS, will link Northern Europe directly with Nigeria, Ghana and Benin, and is expected to commence with the sailing of the Navios Verano, scheduled to depart Southampton on August 26, this year

The rotation will call at Southampton, Vlissingen, Antwerp, Tanger Med, Algeciras, Tema, Lekki, Cotonou and Dakar, placing Lekki Port firmly on a direct maritime corridor connecting major European export hubs to West Africa’s busiest commercial gateways.

CMA CGM said the service is designed to cut transit times and improve cargo connectivity for shippers moving goods between the two regions, describing the schedule as offering market-leading transit times.

While the carrier specifically cited a 15-day transit from Antwerp to Tema, Ghana, it said Nigerian and Beninese importers using Lekki and Cotonou would also benefit from significantly shorter delivery schedules compared to existing routings.

Industry watchers say shorter transit times into Lekki could help Nigerian businesses cut inventory holding costs and improve supply chain efficiency, particularly for time-sensitive cargo.

The service will be operated exclusively by CMA CGM using vessels with a nominal capacity of about 4,200 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), providing weekly sailings to support what the carrier described as growing trade volumes between Europe and West Africa.

As part of a wider restructuring of its West African network, CMA CGM said its existing EURAF 5 service will be repositioned to focus on the southern West African corridor, with direct calls at Cameroon, Gabon, Congo and Angola, a move intended to complement KORA EXPRESS by giving the region more specialised coverage.

The French carrier added that the new network combines faster transit times, dedicated weekly capacity, and broader connectivity through its transshipment hubs at Tanger Med and Algeciras, allowing customers to link cargo moving through Lekki and other West African ports to CMA CGM’s wider global shipping network.

The development comes amid intensifying competition among global container lines for cargo moving into West Africa, driven by expanding consumer markets, industrial growth and rising investment in modern port infrastructure.

Nigeria, as the region’s largest economy, remains one of the biggest destinations for containerised imports, and the continued development of Lekki Deep Sea Port is attracting new direct shipping services from international carriers seeking a foothold in the market.