Lekki Deep Sea Port, Nigeria’s deepest seaport will test run operation next week, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu confirmed on Thursday.
The test run is preparatory for the commercial operation of the $1.5 billion seaport.
In his budget speech at the Lagos State House of Assembly, Sanwo-Olu said: “We have also successfully facilitated more than $600 million in investment into the Lekki Deep Sea Port, working closely with our private and public sector partners.
“From next week, the test-running of the Lekki seaport will start. This brand-new port has three times the capacity of the Apapa Port and will give Lagos almost 50 percent of the shipping logistics volumes in West Africa.”
Spread over 90 hectares of land in the heart of the Lagos Free Zone and 65 kilometres east of Lagos city, the Lekki Deep Sea Port (Lekki Port) is a multi-purpose port, regarded as one of the most modern ports in the West African sub-region
The port comprises of three containers, three liquid and one dry bulk berth.
It is being undertaken by Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited, a special purpose vehicle promoted by the Tolaram & China Harbour Engineering Company Limited. The federal government and Lagos State government are major stakeholders in Lekki Port.
The world-class port is expected to provide more than 100,000 jobs and change the face of port operations across the country.
A senior official of Lekki Port told journalist that the port was 100 percent completed and would soon commence operations to the delight of shippers and manufacturers that depend on seaports to bring in raw materials and export finished goods
“Dredging and reclamation works are now 100 percent completed. The Quay wall and the Breakwater have been completed. Ditto landside infrastructure and other facilities,” the official said.
The promoters of the first and biggest deep water port in the country, it was gathered, have provided modern equipment to boost its operation as a smart port.
According to the senior official, with the completion of the much-awaited deep seaport, the nation’s port industry will start to function at par with the ports of Abidjan, Lome and Tema.
The Lekki Port, with 16.5 metres depth, was designed to bridge the gap in the projected demand for containerised goods, especially as the capacity of existing ports in Apapa and Tin-Can to handle the numbers of vessels and cargoes coming to the port is becoming problematic.
Based on projection, Lekki Port is expected to decongest the Apapa Port, which is currently struggling with limited space and poor infrastructure, especially for cargo evacuation from and delivery of export goods to the port.
He said: “As a modern port, the Lekki Deep Sea Port will assist Nigeria with the capacity to handle cargoes in a timely and more efficient manner.
“The port has the capacity to accommodate larger and more modern vessels with an economy of scale for the shipper and fast delivery of consignments from any port across the globe to Lekki, in Nigeria.”
Chairman, Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited (LPLEL), Abiodun Dabiri, who spoke yesterday at a breakfast meeting organised by the Nigerian-South African Chamber of Commerce in Lagos, confirmed that the contractor – China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd – will and over the port to its promoters October 31.
On the economic gains of the Lekki Port, a ship captain, Monday Alexander, explained that the daily cost difference between a ship carrying 4,500 Twenty Equivalent Units (TEUs) of containers, like in the case of Apapa Port, and a larger vessel with a capacity to carry 20,000 containers is about $1,000, which has stimulated investment in deep sea ports across the globe.
