ABSTRACT
The Nigerian maritime industry is dominated by foreign shipping companies. The foreign firms dominated over 95% of the activities whereby, rendering the indigenous companies useless and non-active. However, these have resulted to many companies to go underground since they cannot participate or complete favourably with the foreign companies. As a result of this, Nigeria loses billion of naira annually though capital flight which has affected the economy negatively. Nigeria is an import oriented country and 90% of her cargo comes in through the sea. As a result of this led to the investigation on ways which Nigeria can participate actively in shipping trade. The methodology of this study explained the steps that were taken in the course of the research. Data collection was through questionnaire, oral interviews, personal observation and survey of existing documents and data collection were analyzed and arranged in simple average table, percentages and charts, chi-square method of data analysis was used to test the observations. After the presentation and analysis of data, it was discovered that there was a need for an effective participation of the indigenous shipping companies in lifting cargo. It is believe that this research will go a long way. In enhancing the participation of the indigenous shipping companies, if attention is given to recommendation.
