Lekki Deep Sea Port To Start commercial activities September, Says Amaechi
Amaechi
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has said commercial activities at the Lekki Deep Sea Port will start in September 2022.
Amaechi disclosed this today, March 13, 2022, during his routine inspection of the project at Lekki Free Trade Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos state.
The Minister said the project is expected to annually contribute $360 billion to Nigeria’s GDP. Also, he disclosed that the project is the first Sea Port because both Tin Can and Apapa were are River Ports.
Lekki Port, which is expected to be the deepest port in Sub-saharan Africa, according to the Minister is a privately funded project, being promoted by Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited with the federal government playing the role of landlord.
“By September 3022 that we agreed they should commence commercial activities.
“We are talking with Lagos State government let us see how to relocate them because the need for extension will be understated if we ignore it. Now that are 5000 persons, we need to have a discussion with the community, with the Lagos State government and make provision for their relocation.
“This is a privately funded project. But, over time they will collect their revenue from commercial activities before they hand over to the federal government through the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA. But obviously, taxes will be collected here.
“I am not sure there is any tax exemption. And we must say too that the confidence in giving them the project is because of the taxes that we will collect here that will help in the construction of other projects.
“I imagine quite a lot of things and I wish I could implement them. I imagine that the Lagos – Calabar rial should start from here. That is my imagination. But Lagos – Calabar rial project is $11.1 billion and we don’t know where that money going to come from, so as Minister of Transport, I will start from Benin to Port Harcourt, then to Calabar. It is only when we finish that we are going to think about how to come from Benin to Lagos because there is already a rail from Lagos to Kano. So for me, what makes economic sense is that there is another sea Port in Warri, Calabar, and Port Harcourt that need to be linked with the train too, just like we linked Tin Can and Apapa.
Amaechi further said “another piece of advice I could give is that if they want to invest, they could invest in rail. And then, the government should either do tax deductions or something to help pay them back. But for now, the government does not have money”.
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At the inspection, Amaechi was joined by the Permanent secretary Ministry of Transport, Dr. Mrs Magdalene Ajani, Managing Director of NIgerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko, the Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA Dr. Bashir Jamoh; Officials of Lekki Deep Sea Port partners and contractors as well as Directors from the ministry of transport and NPA.