Tolaram Group near funding decision on $1.6bn Lekki Deep Seaport

Tolaram Group, the developer of the $1.6 billion Lekki Deep Seaport, says it is finalising discussions with the lenders backing the port project to have access to 100  percent of the fund needed to execute it.

The port project is jointly financed by a consortium of six banks – the African Development Bank (AFDB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), RMB, Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) and Standard Bank.     

“Due diligence exercise is near completion, meaning that we are now finalising discussion with the lenders to close-down 100 percent financial resources with the lenders, backing the project.

“We have also received notice to proceed with the engineering, procurement and construction  (EPC) contract and hopefully, by early next year, we would get the 100 percent financial help for the project,” Stephen Heukelom, Port Manager of Lekki Port, said during the visit of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport to the port site.

Heukelom said, Tolaram Group has  presently received $900 million worth of Expressions of Interest (EOI) from the six banks and an additional sum of $350 million from the African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank, to drive preliminary work on the port site. 

According to Heukelom , the environmental impact assessment report for the port project has been approved by the Federal Ministry of Environment and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has likewise given technical approval for the design.

“So far, we started with the design and the business plan and have completed the environmental impact assessment. We also have carried out the design studies, site studies and economic impact studies, as some of the milestones recorded so far.

“We have also completed the throughput optimisation studies, traffic studies for the road infrastructure and all of those studies confirmed that Lekki is the most suitable location for the development of the port,” Heukelom added.

The Lekki deep seaport, he said, is jointly owned and developed by the Tolaram Group, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Lagos State Government as equity investors.

“Tolaram has the concession to build and operate the port for 45 years. The China Harbour Engineering Company, the world’s biggest marine engineering company, was appointed as the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractor to oversee the design, construction and commissioning of the port project, under the supervision of an American project management consultant known as Louis Berger Group.”

John Mastoroudes, director of the port, who gave insight into the project, said the project design was approved by the NPA in 2009 and the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) were selected through bidding process to handle the container terminal for 20 years.

“It is proposed that the multi-purpose port would cover an area of 90 hectares with three container berths, long dry bulk berths and three liquid berths. Initially, the port would handle 1.5 million Twenty Equivalent Unit (TEUs) of containers annually. This would be upgraded to 2.5 million TEUs in future. The channel would be dredged to 14 meters depth, which would be deepened to 19 meters as traffic grows. The breakwater is 1.5 kilometres long.”

The port, which is developed as part of the Lagos Free Trade Zone, will be located 65km east of Lagos State and it would offer the opportunity to enter the already growing Nigerian market and the surrounding West African region.

Petroleum products would be carried from the terminals through pipelines to the adjacent tank farms.

The container berths, which would be dredged to 16 meters would be sufficient to handle about 8,000 TEU vessels with ship-to-shore crane and Rubber Tyre Gantry cranes (RTG) that would ensure that the port would be a modern efficient facility.

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE