Nigeria is confident that its ocean freight throughput, hamstrung for years because of capacity issues and related congestion challenges at the ports of Apapa and Tin Can Island, will be boosted by the official opening of Lekki port.
This after Beijing-based China Communications Construction Company and its construction subsidiary, China Harbour Engineering Company, handed over the $1.6-billion port to Nigeria’s government.
Nigeria’s deepest port, situated east of the current Lagos Port Complex (LPC), has been partly operational since 2018, but the multipurpose facility can now be run to its full capacity.
Although initially planned to handle six million TEUs, Lekki is capable of handling 2.5 million twenty-foot boxes.
The terminal has a 1 200m quay operated by 13 ship-to-shore cranes and will be run by the Terminals Group of French line, CMA CGM.
Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said he believed that Lekki port would enable Nigeria to become a logistics hub for the entire coastal region along the Gulf of Guinea.
Hinterland challenges though remain, especially immediate land-side linkages and infrastructural development necessary to optimise Lekki from a multimodal point of view.
Sanwo-Olu added that densification at the port would be cleared up to allow for the construction of roads serving Lekki.
He said these impediments would be addressed as a matter of urgency.
