$1.55bn investment in Lekki Port to spur unique economic growth

Nigeria’s maritime sector will soon witness a major boost translating into rapid economic growth for the country, which will in turn help shape business for good in the entire West African region as well as Africa at large. This projection is on the back of the accelerated pace of work currently ongoing on the site of the Lekki Port project scheduled to be operational by Q3 2016.

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

Haresh Aswani, managing director of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise, who made this known to newsmen during a media tour of the site to ascertain the current position of the port, said the Lekki Port was conceptualised as a multi-product industrial and logistics hub that would spread across 90ha of land to be built at an estimated cost of $1.55 billion. About $800 million, according to him, has so far been committed into the construction project while 33 out of the 36 project permits have been secured.

Aswani said the deep seaport which would be located 65 km east of Lagos Mainland would become the gateway to West African region and would be one of the most efficient and modern maritime facilities that would cater for containerised, liquid and dry bulk cargo at international standard.

“In addition to bridging the capacity deficit,” he said, “Lekki Port will have significant positive macroeconomic impact estimated at $361 billion over the entire concession period. It is expected to contribute more than $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 industrialisation.”

In a bid to ensure smooth and efficient operations, Lekki Port has engaged the services of 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, one of the leading container terminal operators with a footprint across the globe.

The EPC construction contract has been issued on a turnkey basis to China Harbour Engineering Company which mobilised men and machinery to site in August 2012 such that work is already in the last lap of pre-construction investigations and site preparation activities.

Findings have shown that Lekki Port was 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 cargo throughput in Nigerian ports is growing by the day, but the current port facility does not have sufficient capacity to meet the increasing growth in cargo volume.

However, industry experts believe that the Lekki Port, once operational, would play a significant role in easing out congestion at existing ports in Nigeria.

Tejaswi A. Vanamali, project manager of Lekki Port, said strategic location, optimal layout and modern facilities provide Lekki Port a distinct competitive edge over any other port facility in the West African region.

Lagos State government’s and NPA’s involvement as shareholders in this project demonstrates both their interest in the success of Lekki Port as well as their confidence in the Public-Private Partnership model to bridge the gaps in port infrastructure, which is pivotal to the growth of the Nigerian economy.

To ensure that the scheduled operational date is met, promoters of Lekki Port have completed all the market engineering and impact studies over the last six years and the port site has also been gazetted as port area by the Federal Government. Also, the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been fully completed with IFC/World Bank guidelines.

“Container terminal sub-concession has been awarded to International Common User Terminal Operator ICTSI focusing on emerging markets after a tedious competitive bidding. Also, shareholders agreement has been signed between the sponsors, NPA and the Lagos State government. We are very much on course and in no distant time Nigerians and the entire West African region would witness a revolution never seen before in the maritime sector,” Vanamali said.

The major sponsor of the project, the Tolaram Group, parent company of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise, is a Singapore-based conglomerate operating in six countries across Asia, Europe and Africa for over 60 years and has been in Nigeria for more than 35 years. The group raked in over $800 in 2012 and has 8,600 people of diverse nationalities in its employment list.