The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said on Sunday that it has successfully berthed the first container vessel in the newly built $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Seaport.
Nigeria’s biggest and deepest seaport, which is billed to be commissioned on Monday January 24, 2023 by President Muhammadu Buhari, received one of the largest container vessels owned by the CMA-CGM, the French container carrier, NPA said in its official twitter handle @NigerianPorts on Sunday.
“Ahead of the President’s commissioning of @LekkiPort for commercial operations tomorrow, one of the largest container vessels, the CMA-CGM, has berthed at the port,” said the NPA tweet.
The Port Authority further said that the development has proven that NPA is prepared to offer marine services for seamless port operations.
Earlier, Du Ruogang, the managing director of Lekki Port assured that after the official commissioning by President Muhammadu Buhari, the port will be fully ready to begin commercial operations.
He said that the terminal operator, Lekki Free Port Terminal (LFT), is putting everything in place to give a world-class services to port users.
Read also: Buhari to inaugurate Lagos Blue Line rail, Lekki Deep Seaport, others on Monday, Tuesday
He added that all the relevant agencies have been sensitised to undertake their roles in the new port, and that Lagos State Government has also commenced work on the construction of access roads leading to the port for ease of cargo movement.
In this first phase, the port is expected to have a natural depth of 16.5 metres, a quay length of 680 metres, a breakwater of 1.909 metres, about three container berths, a marine services jetty to handle containers as well as a liquid and dry bulk.
The container terminal is built and equipped with the capacity to handle up to 2.7 million 20-foot equivalent units of containers (TEUs) annually.
