Ferries from Second Badagry

Despite the name, the Second Badagry landing has little to do with the historic slave-trade town of Badagry on Lagos State's far western coast. It is a lagoon-side embarkation point in the Ajeromi-Ifelodun area, on the crowded mainland fringe near Apapa and Ajegunle, where "Badagry" survives as a neighbourhood name rather than a destination. Wooden and fibreglass passenger boats push off here for the short hop across the Lagos Lagoon to Number 1A Waterside, one of the cluster of jetties serving Lagos Island's waterside markets around Ebute Ero and Idumota.

This is commuter water transport at its most informal. The crossing is run by local commercial boat operators rather than the government's Lagos Ferry Services (LagFerry), so there is no printed timetable, no ticket booth and no fixed fleet: boats typically fill and go, and fares are negotiated in cash, rising when demand spikes or the water is rough. The Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) is the regulator for all lagoon traffic and licenses operators, but landings like Second Badagry sit at the unlicensed, artisanal end of the network.

For a working Lagosian the appeal is obvious. The alternative is grinding through Apapa's notorious container-truck gridlock and over the congested bridges toward the Island, a journey that can swallow hours; the boat covers the same water distance in minutes. Travellers should treat safety as their own responsibility here, insisting on a life jacket and avoiding overloaded or after-dark trips, since enforcement is uneven.

Change is on the horizon. Under the EU-backed Omi Eko project, LASWA is rolling out dredged channels, rebuilt terminals and a fleet of electric passenger vessels across 15 lagoon routes through the late 2020s, with the stated aim of formalising crossings and cutting fares. Whether a small landing like Second Badagry is folded into that upgraded network, or stays a cash-and-carry local crossing, is still to be seen.