NKIRUKA NNOROM writes that the Lekki Port, expected to be operational in 2016, will change the face of maritime business in Nigeria and improve economic fortune of the nation

A regulator visitor or even a first time visitor to Apapa Port, the most functional port in Nigeria will attest to the congestion within the Port premises.

As a result of this, the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, last year announced 24-hour cargo clearance measure, and the abolition of the numerous government agencies that delay the clearance of goods.

Despite this, port operations in Lagos are still marred by congestion largely attributed to the incorrigible presence of the sacked agencies.

The same issue congestion at Ports had previously led to the establishment of the Tin Can Port in the 1970s to free Apapa Port, as well as the subsequent setting up of bonded terminals by licensed individuals. Thereafter, complaint of inadequate facilities, especially plants for loading containers, provided by both the Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA and the private terminals led to port concessioning/privatisation in 2006.

Regrettably, all the measures so far taken to make Nigerian ports user friendly, ease the problem of congestion and the attendant huge revenue losses to the nation have yielded no meaningful result.

It is in the light of this that industry experts have said Lekki Port, (under construction) which is being spearheaded by Tolaram Group, parent company of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise, once operational would play a significant role in easing out the congestion at existing Nigerian Ports, and also spur Nigerian economy to an unprecedented growth.

The port, which is to be located in the Lagos Free Trade Zone at the Lekki sub-region, is a Build, Own and Transfer (BOT) plan and has been vetted by the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, ICRC.

Lekki Port conceptualised as a multi product industrial and logistics hub would spread across 90Ha of land and shall be built at an estimated cost of $1.55 billion (N248 billion). So far, the Aggregate Committed Amount to date is $ 800million, while 33 out of 36 project permits have already been secured.

Stakeholders in the maritime industry believe that the deep-sea port, which will be located 65 km east of Lagos Mainland, shall become the gateway to West African region and would be one of the most efficient and modern maritime facilities that will cater to containerised, liquid and dry bulk cargo par international standards.

Lekki Port has been conceptualised on the basis of a significant gap in projected demand and capacity, needed to be met in conveying goods to and from Nigeria.

“The demand is attractively high and the available capacity will not be sufficient to meet this demand. The economic viability of Lekki Port is founded on this unmet demand,” said the Managing Director, Lekki Port, Mr. Haresh Aswani.

According to him, the Lekki Port would eventually become the hub for West Africa, adding “Our aim is to make this serve West Africa. So, our capacity in the first stage must be 1.5million containers per year, eventually going to 2.7 million and ultimately, we hope to grow to 4.5million containers a year.

“That should be the deficit demand that we have now because there is huge capacity gap and that gap is 1.5 million in the next five to seven years. There is already a gap we now estimate to about half a million to about 600,000 containers now.

This means shippers that want to come here don’t have the space now and the size of ships that come here are small, we have about 2000 TUs and what we intend to do is dredge to 16metres, which will allow us to bring in 8,000 to 10,000 TUs containers.”

Already Tolaram has put together leading global consultants in the mould of the Louis Berger Group Inc., Delta Marine Consultants, Berger ABAM and TBA Netherlands and the container terminal has been sub-concessioned to International Container Terminal Services, Inc, Philippines, a leader in the container terminal operations with a footprint across the globe.

The EPC construction contract has been issued on a turnkey basis to China Harbour Engineering Company, which mobilised their men and machinery in August 2012 and is already in the last lap of pre-construction investigations and site preparation activities. The construction work, such as onshore and offshore surveys and geotechnical investigations that will feed into the detailed construction phase engineering is moving swiftly towards completion. Also, the rock shipment for the purpose of break water construction is going on in full swing with appx 15000 Cu.M rock already at the site. With such accelerated pace of construction  of Lekki Port, the much needed boost to the maritime infrastructure in Nigeria is shaping up well and would be operational as scheduled.

“In addition to bridging the capacity deficit, Lekki Port will have significant positive macroeconomic impact estimated at USD 361 billion over the entire concession period. It is expected to contribute more than USD 200 billion to the government exchequer while also creating close to 170,000 new jobs in the economy. Furthermore, Lekki Port will spur the economic development around the Lekki sub-region and on a wider perspective, the whole of Lagos State through rapid industrialization”, said, the Project Manager, Tejaswi A. Vanamali.

According to Vanamali, the strategic location, optimal layout and modern facilities provide Lekki Port a distinct competitive edge over any other port facility in the West African region.

He stated that the Lagos State Government’s and Nigerian Ports Authority’s (NPA) involvement as shareholders in the project, demonstrates both their interest in the success of Lekki Port and their confidence in the Public-Private Partnership model to bridge the gaps in the infrastructure domain, which is pivotal to overall growth of Nigerian economy.

Lekki Port

Managing Director of NPA, Mr. Habib Abdulahi, explained that the lekki Port would enhance the economy because the federal government has identified the maritime sector as a sector that has great potential of boosting the country’s revenue.

The Federal Minister of Transport, Umar Idris, during his visit to the port site also said once commercially operational, Leki port will be the maritime hub of West Africa.