Spanish shipbuilder Grup Aresa International has been contracted by the Nigerian Navy to supply four aluminum patrol boats, with the hulls already completed. The boats, are the Aresa 1700 IPC inshore patrol craft.
Nigeria’s 2021 budget appropriation bill indicates procurement of 4 x 17 m inshore patrol craft (Aresa boats) is ongoing.
For over 60 years, Aresa which specializes in the construction, repair, and maintenance, services, and marketing of vessels up to 60 meters in length in composite materials and aluminum, has built and delivered over 1,200 vessels.
For a long time, Aresa has been supplying vessels for Nigeria, with Nigerian state-owned Global West Vessels Specialist Limited receiving four 17 meter long Aresa 1800 CPV multirole vessels in 2013 on behalf of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA). Aresa also delivered 4 Aresa 1300 sentinel RIB vessels to Global West in 2013.
Several countries in Africa has purchased boats from Aresa including Senegal Maritime Police 15 Aresa 1200 Coastal Patrol vessels acquired in the 1990s, Cameroon 17 military vessels purchased in the 2010s, and Angola Maritime Police and Nigerian Navy