Investor flags-off full construction of $729m marine, land-side infrastructure of Lekki Port

Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise (LPLE) has issued notice-to-proceed to its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, China Harbour Engineering LFTZ Enterprise, to commence full construction activities for Lekki Deep Seaport located at Lagos Free Trade Zone (LFTZ) in Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State.

Lekki port, which will be the deepest seaport in sub-Sahara Africa with a draft of 16.5 metres, is scheduled to become operational in 2019.

“This is a major milestone on the project and it marks the beginning of the 41-month construction period for the largest maritime project in the country and we are flagging off the construction today by releasing an advance payment of $58.5 million to the contractor,” said Haresh Aswani, managing director of Lekki Port weekend in Lagos, during the notice-to-proceed ceremony.

According to him, the total contract value for construction of all marine and land-side infrastructure for Lekki Port stands at USD$792 million while the total cost of this phase of the project is estimated at USD$1.65 billion.

Aswani, who stated that the port facility when completed would have the capacity to handle post-panamax container vessels of about 10,000 Twenty Equivalent Units (TEU), added that the port will commence operations with annual throughput capacity of 1.5 million TEU, which is expected to rise to 2.7 million TEU.

“The port will be equipped to handle around 16.7 million metric tons of liquid cargo and 4.0 million metric tons of dry bulk cargo annually”, he stated.

Stating that the completion of Lekki Port would help in solving the long-standing congestion problem currently existing at Apapa ports, Aswani noted that it will help in creating an enabling environment and spur massive investments along the free trade zone corridor including the entire Nigerian economy.

He further disclosed that the port will generate direct and induced employment for about 170,000 persons and will have an economic impact of $361 billion over the concession period.

While pledging its support for the project, Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), who described the investment in Lekki Port as the much needed investment in the nation’s economy, stated that it will not only help in decongesting Apapa but will also create huge employment in the country.