Expected locally built $3.8bn vessel, big achievement for Buhari government, says Customs

Determined to reposition the nation’s economy, Hameed Alli (rtd), the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), has described the $3.8bn first made-in-Nigeria oil servicing platform known as Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel, as one of the accomplishments of President Mohammadu Buhari administration.

The $3.8 billion Egina platform, currently being built in Nigeria at the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) by the Samsung Heavy Industry (SHI), was commenced in 2013 and it is expected to be fully operational in 2017.

Speaking yesterday in Lagos, when he led top management team of Customs on a facility tour of the LADOL Free Zone, in Tarkwa bay, Apapa, where the oil platform is being integrated, Ali expressed delight at the wholly indigenously owned facility which has so far consumed $600 million in local content input.

Alli believed that the presidency would appreciate the project, considering that the indigenous investor took such a bold step amid the risk in undertaking such ventures.

“I have come and I have seen. I will take the message to President Muhammadu Buhari whom I’m sure will be impressed if he gets to know what you are doing here. The President is interested more that you are the first people that are doing this kind of project in West Africa and to say that your organisation is owned by Nigerians, it is amazing.”

Continuing, he says: “With what you are doing here, I have no doubt that government will continue to support and encourage you because any government will be glad to support an entity such as this that will put Nigeria at par with other industrially developed countries of the world.

Earlier in her welcome address, Amy Jadesimi, managing director of the LADOL Free Zone, said the zone which has been developed into a world-class facility from a swamp land, has so far generated about N16.9 billion dollars in customs revenue in the past 10 years.

According to her, similar huge revenue would accrue to the  nation’s coffers through the Egina project, when completed. “Given that the FPSO is going to arrive partially integrated before it goes out, the customs duty of the FPSO will be paid through the Apapa Customs command and that will be determined by the customs assessment team in the area of value.

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE