LADOL FTZ can industrialise Nigeria, attract FDI, and create jobs, says Customs’ boss

Musa Jibrin, the newly appointed Area Controller of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Apapa Area 1 command, has described the facility of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics base (LADOL), as an indigenous oil and gas logistics service facility that has the potential to create industrial cluster, attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and create jobs for Nigerians.

The Customs boss said this in Lagos on Thursday, during the facility tour of LADOL Free Trade Zone (FTZ) by the command. Also, Aisha Ali Ibrahim, the newly appointed Port Manager of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) Lagos Ports Complex (LPC), promised to collaborate with LADOL to enable the FTZ achieves its goals.

Jibrin, who visited LADOL the same day the new LPC Manager also visited the facility with her top management officials, was accompanied by his top management team. Both teams were separately received by Amy Jadesimi, managing director of LADOL, a 100 percent indigenous owned Free Zone that is currently undertaking the fabrication of $3.8 billion Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading  (FPSO) oil platform for Total Exploration.

Jadesimi pointed out that the FPSO contract otherwise known as Egina Project was awarded by a consortium of Oil companies led by TOTAL, to Korea-based Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) with LADOL acting as the local content partner.

According to her, prior to the award of the contract, two similar projects, which emanated from Nigeria, were undertaken abroad at higher costs with the attendant revenue and sundry economic losses to the nation because there was no shipyard in Nigeria that could adequately handle such projects before the advent of LADOL.

“With the commencement of this Egina project here at our yard, which was constructed in one year, Nigeria is being saved of huge capital flight that is aside from the attendant job losses if 100 percent of the job was executed in Korea. We have over the years maintained a healthy relationship with Customs, and it is our desire to keep the cordial relationship growing,” she said.

Responding, Jibrin expressed delight at the standard of operations at the base, particularly the Egina project which he described as one of the pride of a nation in dire need of technological growth.

According to him, the Customs would always collaborate with LADOL and other similar facilities within the command. “Going by what we have seen here, you measure up to every known international standard as a true ambassador for Nigeria. “Nigeria needs to industrialise and grow in tandem with global best practices and this facility could not have come at a better time than this.”

Similarly, the Port manager of LPC, who also commended the operations at LADOL base, described LADOL as a ‘worthy tenant of NPA’. She said that the visit was part of the roles of LPC in the monitoring and liaising with terminals inside Apapa Port towards evolving an enhanced collaboration with operators.

While emphasising that regular operational report should be made to her office, the port manager emphasised that the team had been working with LADOL for the past 10 years; hence the need for enhanced communication and regular exchange of information for greater understanding.

She further described LADOL’s activities in the Port as unique and strategic, which focuses more on heavy industrial activities that require full support of LPC as they are creating jobs for Nigerians.