Nigerian shippers, (exporters and importers), want the federal government together with the promoters of the $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Seaport, to expand the Lekki-Epe Expressway, Epe-Shagamu Road and develop a functional rail line to ensure smooth movement of cargoes in and out of the Port.
According to them, the promoters also need to ensure that the government establishes truck and trailer transit parks within the Epe axis to serve as truck holding-bays, for trucks coming to the seaport to pick laden containers or drop empties.
They further say government needs to limit the number of oil tank farms licensed to be situated within the Epe axis while the existing ones as well as refineries should de-emphasise haulage by road by also making use of the railway or pipeline as alternative means of evacuating products.
“There is need to expand the roads leading to the Lekki Deep Seaport to eight lanes to avert the reoccurrence of the Apapa problem,” said Iheanacho Ebubeogu of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
Ebubeogu, who said that Nigeria needs deep seaport soonest to allow for berthing of bigger ships, said promoters of port projects in Nigeria should learn not to depend on port plan but port master plan.
“Port plan covers the jurisdiction of the port while port master plan covers the port itself and its maritime industrial environment. For instance, if the NPA had had the vision of port master plan at the time Apapa port was built, the whole of Creek Road and Wharf Road would have been secured and owned by the NPA,” he said.
“If the NPA had Creek Road, the authority would not have allowed two tank farms to be located on the Creek Road. We must have port areas where the port managers collaborate with the city administrators to regulate traffic,” he added.
Citing America as example, Ebubeogu said the World Trade Centre and its environs belong to the Port of New York because it enabled the port authority to regulate the tenancy to ensure that the traffic flow from the city will not be in conflict with the port.
Upon completion, Lekki Port will have a total of three container berths, one dry bulk berth and three liquid berths. It is expected to have 16.5 meters draught for berthing of larger vessels and accommodate 2.7 million TEUs of projected container capacity per annum.
“With the development of these critical infrastructure within the Lekki Port axis, Nigeria’s first deep seaport will become a destination hub for trans-shipment and local cargoes, without recording incidents of traffic congestion that have been bedevilling business activities in the nation’s major seaports, Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports for the past seven years,” Tony Anakebe, a maritime analyst, said.
Lekki Port, which is a multi-purpose seaport located at the heart of the Lagos Free Trade Zone, will be one of the most modern ports in West Africa. The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) awarded 45 years concession to Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise on a Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) basis.
“To avert the reoccurrence of what is happening in Apapa today, government in building new port infrastructure, should ensure that between the port entrance and about 4 kilometres away should be only warehouses for storing cargoes and roads for movement of cargo by trucks,” said Kunle Folarin, chairman of Port Consultative Council (PCC).
Folarin, who noted that there is no port corridor in Nigeria because there are several residential houses located 10 meters from the port, suggested that new ports like Lekki should have ring road that is exclusively reserved for the port operation.
“If we keep using single mode of transportation without rail and waterways, the roads will fail due to the pressure on them. For example, when Apapa-Oshodi Expressway was constructed, it was conceived that the road was meant to serve the Tin-Can Island Port, but today the road has become a municipal traffic area used by residents,” he said.
A recent study, Folarin said, shows that about 1 million vehicles transit from Oshodi through Apapa to Lagos at peak period, showing that new ports like Lekki should plan for future growth.
“If we fail to do the right thing today, in the future, if Nigeria prospers and the volume of cargo increases, it will become difficult to manager prosperity than poverty,” he added.
Lekki port is owned by the International Consortium led by Lekki Port Investment Holding Inc. (Tolaram Group), which holds 75 percent of the equity share; Lagos State Government 20 percent and the NPA hold 5 percent.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
