• Friday, March 29, 2024
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We will deliver Lekki Port project in 30 months – CHEC

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The major contractor handling the Lekki deep seaport, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), has vowed to deliver the project by 2021 or in 30 months’ time.

Lin Yichong, chairman, CHEC, the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contractor that would oversee the design and construction of the project, said the signing of a facility loan agreement is a major step towards the project’s financial closure, which indicates that the project will move to the construction stage.

While acknowledging that CHEC has the capability and technical knowhow to deliver on the port project, Yichong said the port would consist of two container berths that would receive the next generation container ships with the ability to accommodate 1.2 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in the first phase.

Upon the completion of Nigeria’s deepest seaport being built in Lekki, the eastern part of Lagos, Nigerian businesses as well as manufacturers that depend on seaports to bring in raw materials and other critical production inputs would heave a sigh of relief.

The Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited on Wednesday in Lagos signed a loan facility agreement with the China Development Bank (CDB) for the funding of the Lekki Deep Seaport project to the tune of US$629 million.

The signing ceremony, which was witnessed by the representatives of both equity investors, including the Lagos State Government led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) led by Hadiza Bala-Usman, who was represented by the Sakonte Davies, executive director, Marine and Operations, was done in four parts.

Both partners signed the Facility Loan Agreement; Project Completion Guarantee Agreement; Sponsor Support Agreement and the tripartite Keep-word Agreement. With the signing of these agreements and subsequent funding of the port project, China Development Bank hopes to expand its investment in Nigeria.

It is expected that upon completion, Lekki Port will have a total of three container berths, one dry bulk berth and three liquid berths.

Governor Sanwo-Olu, who pledged his undying support for the port project, said that it takes a lot of effort for an investment of this magnitude to be converged.

He commended the government and investment delegation from China led by Chu Maoming, consul-general of the People’s Republic of China in Nigeria, saying that Nigeria needs to create a lot of transaction of this sort to ignite economic and national development.

Earlier in his welcome address, Haresh Aswani, managing director, Tolaram Group, parent company of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Ltd, described the loan facility agreement as a significant milestone in the journey to deliver a world-class deep seaport, which upon completion would become the busiest port in the West African region.

Aswani said the step indicates that the port would be due for inauguration in 2021 and called for the support of both the Lagos State and Federal Government in enhancement of the road infrastructure around Lekki Port axis to facilitate cargo evacuation from the port.

“Infrastructure is the most difficult project to deliver but upon completion will last for generations. As a group, all that we do here is to create jobs for Nigerians by investing in manufacturing and critical infrastructure,” Aswani said.
“We have been in operation in Nigeria since 1977 and we have specialised in the manufacturing of consumer goods such as Power Oil, Indomie Noodles, Kelloggs Cereals and others,” he said.

Giving insight into the likely economic impact of the port project, Biodun Dabiri, chairman, Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Ltd, said the port, which is also expected to impact on manufacturing, trade and commercial service sectors, would create direct and induced revenue of over $360 billion within the 45-year concession period.

According to him, the first phase of the port will be dredged to 16.5 metres draught and create over 200,000 jobs and generate the much-needed foreign exchange.

Lekki Port, he said, will be a world-class port that would transform Nigeria into a transshipment hub that would support the growth of Lekki Free Zone (LFZ) and the massive petrochemical industry that is expected to pick up in the next three years.

Dabiri said the port would have an integrated transportation system that would combine rail, road and water transportation system for ease of cargo movement.

“Upon completion, Lekki Port would help to decongest the overstretched Apapa and Tin-Can Island Ports. As it stands, we have close to $1 billion funds through equity investment that would ensure the successful delivery of the seaport,” he said.

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE