Two firms have won the bid for the construction of Ibom deep seaport, a landmark public-private partnership project located in the South East of Akwa Ibom and promoted by the state government.
They are the Bollore-PowerChina consortium which emerged as the preferred bidder and China harbor engineering company as the reserved bidder.
Mfon Usoro, chairman of the Ibom deep seaport technical committee who made this known in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital during a meeting with the ministerial project development committee said the next stage would be the commencement of negotiation with the preferred bidder to be done in compliance with all extant rules stipulated by the committee.
She noted that with the support received from Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Nigeria Port Authority(NPA) and the Federal Ministry of Transportation(FMOT), the Committee has been able to go through all the internationally accepted procurement processes that will lead to the actualisation of the port.
“We have also completed works in the Full Business Case, a part of why we convened today with the Federal Ministry of Finance, ICRC, NPA, and the FMOT, was to agree on work-plan between now and end of first quarter of the year, 2020 so we can have final approval from the Federal Government on the project which is the Full Business Case”. She opined.
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On his part, the Director-General of Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Chidi Izuwah, stated that with the level of success recorded by the Akwa Ibom State Technical Working Committee on the realization of the Ibom Deep Seaport, it is time to break grounds for the take-off of the project.
He urged the committee to be target driven in order to achieve the task He observed that the road infrastructure outlay designed for access to and evacuation of goods and services from the deep seaport was world-class and visionary, adding that, as God’s natural gift to Nigeria, Ibom Deep Seaport will be harnessed by the Federal Government in collaboration with the Akwa Ibom State Government, the National Assembly, Technical Partners, and core investors to decongest Lagos when it becomes operational.
He said the Super Highway as well as carefully designed road networks put in place by the State Government which the Works Commissioner, Ephraim Inyangeyen conducted them around, is proof that the State is very committed and determined to accomplish the vision of a functional, world-class deep seaport.
Izuwah dismissed fears that the Federal Government may play politics with the project, insisting that, President Muhammad Buhari is totally committed to transforming all parts of Nigeria with positive development with no political bias whatsoever.
