Tycoon Cosmas Maduka says a South-East seaport will end Lagos's grip on Nigeria's economy

Cosmas Maduka, the billionaire founder of Coscharis Group and one of the most prominent businessmen from Nigeria's South-East, says a seaport in the region would break Lagos's stranglehold on the country's import and export economy and push the commercial capital to compete for the businesses it currently takes for granted.

"If the Federal Government develops a seaport in the South East, the monopoly Lagos State has on Nigeria's economy will collapse," Maduka said in remarks that circulated widely on April 23. "People will then realise there is an alternative, and competition will increase as businesses no longer rely on a single hub for import and export."

He went further. "Lagos State will be the ones now begging, praying, and working hard for business owners to stay in Lagos."

The comments cut to the centre of a debate that has run through Nigerian economic policy for decades without resolution. The country's two main cargo gateways, the Apapa and Tin Can ports in Lagos and the Onne Port complex in Rivers State, sit far from the South-East, adding transport costs, transit time and logistical friction for businesses importing and exporting through the region. Every container bound for Anambra, Imo, Abia, Enugu or Ebonyi must first pass through either Lagos or Port Harcourt, a structural disadvantage that quietly taxes South-East commerce every day.

Previous administrations have floated the idea of a South-East port, with Oguta Lake in Imo State and locations in Abia State emerging as candidate sites at various points. None has been built. The Onitsha river port exists and carries some cargo, but its capacity is a fraction of what a properly developed deep-water or inland port facility could offer.

Maduka's argument is that the infrastructure gap is not just a South-East problem. It is a national efficiency problem. Lagos benefits from being the only credible option, which reduces pressure on the city to improve services, lower costs or modernise its handling. A viable alternative port in the South-East would change that calculus for the whole country.

He also used the platform to direct a challenge inward, calling on the Igbo business community to make the argument concrete by investing in the region. "God has blessed Ndi Igbo, but we must think home as a people and develop our region," he said.

That part of the message carries its own weight coming from Maduka. He built Coscharis in Lagos, trades in vehicles and parts that enter the country through Lagos ports, and has spent most of his business life operating in the city he is now urging to compete. He is not speaking from the outside. He is a direct participant in the system he is criticising.

Who Maduka is

Cosmas Maduka, 67, has one of the most told origin stories in Nigerian business. He was born in Jos in December 1958 to parents from Nnewi in Anambra State, lost his father at 4, left primary school to hawk akara on the streets to support his mother and entered the automotive trade as an apprentice for his uncle. At 17, after a falling-out with his uncle, he was dismissed with N200. He used it as his starting capital.

His first partnership, a spare parts business called CosDave, failed. In 1977 he launched Coscharis Motors with N300. The name came from the first letters of his own name, Cosmas, and his late wife Charity's name. He ran it as a one-man operation until 1982, when the federal government issued import licences to 10 Nigerian companies and Coscharis was one of them. That licence was the inflection point. It gave him access to international supply chains, and he used it to build a vehicle distribution business that has since grown into one of Nigeria's most recognisable private conglomerates.

Coscharis is today the sole distributor of BMW, MINI, Rolls-Royce and Jaguar Land Rover in Nigeria, and a major Ford distribution partner. In 2015, it became the first company to assemble a Ford Ranger pickup truck on Nigerian soil. The group has expanded across manufacturing, ICT, petrochemicals, agro-allied businesses and healthcare. Coscharis Farms holds 5,000 hectares of Anambra land for rice cultivation. He served as a director of Access Bank for 12 years and chaired the Nigerian Table Tennis Federation for 16 years, taking the national team to 4 Olympic Games.

Forbes estimated his net worth at $500 million in 2015. In November 2025, Maduka himself argued that if Coscharis were publicly listed on a stock exchange, he would not be worth less than $5 billion by that methodology. His wife Charity, who co-founded the business and later served as executive chairman of Coscharis Beverages and Coscharis Properties, died in November 2021. He carries her name in the company's every time anyone says it out loud.

His call for a South-East seaport is not purely philanthropic. Maduka's supply chains would benefit from a functioning port closer to his home region. But that alignment of personal interest with public advocacy does not diminish the underlying economic argument. The case for infrastructure competition in Nigeria's ports sector does not depend on who makes it. It depends on whether anyone in government is listening.