Maritime Africa Economic City as catalyst for sector growth

As a consortium of top local and international companies perfect plans to flag off construction works at the site of the Maritime Africa Economic City in the Badagry area of Lagos State, stakeholders have continued to commend the development initiative, described as a major turning point that would bring about global growth in Nigerian maritime domain.

The development of the Maritime Africa Economic City otherwise known as the Badagry Free Zone was recently approved by the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) and was handed over to Patrick Bird, the project director of the Zone, by Gbenga Kuye, the managing director of NEPZA, in Abuja recently.

It is expected that the project upon completion would help to generate hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State Governor, said before the end of 2016 that the Badagry Free Zone and Mega Port project would be a major turning point that would go a long way to bring about global growth to Nigerian waters and the nation’s economy by extension.

According to the Governor, the project would enable the emergence of Lagos as the fifth largest economy in Africa. The Governor, who commended the investors for staying the course of the project, pledged his government’s commitment to ensuring the support of the host communities alongside a sustainable regeneration and urban renewal of the area.

Commending the project, Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, said the project will boost Foreign Direct Investment in the country.

In his view, Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information said the approval shows that Nigeria is still a preferred investment destination in Africa despite the challenges it is currently facing.

“There are bigger vessels now being built across the world that require larger depths and drafts to berth. Now some of our competitors on the continent like Djibouti are building bigger ports, so if we don’t build this port we risk becoming uncompetitive and we risk a threat to our maritime hub status in the sense that we may become a transshipment port instead of a port of original destination,” said Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing while appreciating President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the port and Free Zone projects.

Recall that the Federal Government has also approved the construction of the proposed Mega Port and Free Zone at the Federal Executive Council meeting of August 3, 2016.

The Maritime Africa Economic City will be developed on 1,100 hectares of land with over 6 kilometres of quay wall, including a container terminal, roll-on-roll-off (RORO) terminal, general cargo terminals, oil service centre and refined products import terminals. It will also include a power plant, oil refinery, industrial park, warehousing and inland container depot functions as well.

The Zone is connected to Lagos by the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, which is currently being upgraded and expanded by the Lagos State Government as well as the Porto Novo Creek, allowing for the barging of cargo between the existing port system of Lagos and the new facility. It is also expected that a rail line will be developed in the future to connect the new Free Trade Zone for seamless transit of goods.

Uzoamaka Anagor-Ewuzie