Lekki Port receives first transship vessel with Cotonou-bound containers

Lekki Port, Nigeria’s first deep seaport, said on Thursday that it received CMA CGM Rimbaud, the first transship vessel to call at the port since it began operations in April 2023.

According to the management of the port, the transshipped cargo is bound for Cotonou in the Benin Republic and will be departing the Nigerian waters for Cotonou, its final destination, on July 6, 2023.

The vessel, which arrived at approximately 1.00 pm on Thursday, June 29, 2023, contains cargo from two of the largest container shipping lines in the world, CMA CGM and Maersk.

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The service originated from the Far East, passing through Shanghai, Ningbo, Shekou, Nansha, Tanjung Pelpas, Singapore to Kribi, Cameroun, before finally arriving at Lekki Port today.

The vessel, which has a container handling capacity of 6,900 TEUs berthed at Lekki Port and discharged about 411 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of transship containers.

The coming of CMA CGM Rimbaud confirms the projections of Mohammed Bello-Koko, managing director of the NPA.

He said in Lagos three weeks ago during the commissioning of the largest tugboats in Africa acquired for Lekki Port, that Nigeria has received expressions of interest from countries such as Cameron, Chad, and Niger to have their cargoes moved from Nigerian ports.

He said Lekki Port would not only serve as transship hub for those countries but will also reduce the waiting time for cargo.

Speaking on the milestone, Du Ruogang, managing director of Lekki Port, commended the Federal Ministry of Transportation and the Nigerian Ports Authority for their support in ensuring the commencement of transship activities at Lekki Port.

Laurence Smith, chief operating officer of Lekki Port said that all regulatory agencies operating at the port, particularly the Nigerian Customs Service worked together with Lekki Port and the container terminal operator, Lekki Freeport Terminal, to ensure a hitch-free arrival of the vessel and processing of cargo.

Lekki Port, with its state-of-the-art ship-to-shore cranes and sophisticated scanners, is now poised to position Nigeria as a transshipping hub of West Africa.