Monetizing the Blue Economy: Economic Opportunities From Coastal Tourism, Offshore Renewables and Maritime Smes in Nigeria

Abstract

The persistent over-reliance on hydrocarbon revenues has rendered the Nigerian economy acutely vulnerable to exogenous shocks, necessitating an urgent scholarly and policy pivot towards sustainable diversification strategies. This paper interrogates the underexplored fiscal and developmental potentials embedded within the nation’s blue economy, with a focused analysis on three pivotal sectors: coastal tourism, offshore renewable energy, and maritime small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Employing a qualitative desk-review methodology that synthesizes secondary data from national agencies, peer-reviewed literature, and extant policy documents, the study constructs a nuanced narrative of latent opportunity constrained by systemic impediments. Findings indicate that Nigeria’s extensive coastline and aquatic endowments harbour significant, yet largely untapped, capacity for job creation, GDP augmentation, and sustainable industrial growth. Coastal tourism, for instance, remains hampered by infrastructural deficits and security concerns, despite its proven potential for foreign exchange earnings and community upliftment. Similarly, the potential for offshore wind, tidal, and solar energy presents a viable pathway for energy security and low-carbon transition, but is stymied by prohibitive upfront capital requirements and an immature regulatory ecosystem. Concurrently, maritime SMEs, which constitute the backbone of the aquatic industrial ecosystem, face crippling logistical and financing bottlenecks that stifle scalability