New Lagos Seaport To Gulp N240b

The proposed Lekki seaport will gulp N240 billion ($1.5 billion), says the Lagos State Government.

Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Olusola Oworu disclosed this on last week at a ministerial press briefing in Lagos, southwest Nigeria, saying that the development of Lekki Deep Seaport (Phase I) would gulp $1.5 billion.

She said the need for another seaport in the state was due to the inadequacy of facilities at the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports.

“The Lagos State Government in collaboration with the Federal Government through the Nigerian Ports Authority and a private investor-Lekki Port Lekki Free Trade Zone Enterprise (LPLE) has commenced the development of the Lekki Deep Seaport in Akodo, Ibeju-Lekki Local Government area of the state,” she stated.

Oworu disclosed that presently shareholders agreement has been executed while preliminary works has started at the site, saying that when completed, the port would relieve the pressure on the Apapa and Tin-Can Island ports and would also support business activities at the Lekki Free Trade Zone.

“The construction of the port is expected to last for about four years and over 10,000 jobs are projected to be created directly and indirectly during the construction period while over 169,000 jobs would be generated directly and indirectly when it becomes fully operational,” she explained.

On the proposed Lekki-Epe International Airport, the commissioner said since the Lekki Free Trade Zone would soon become a haven for investment, the government thought it fit to have an international airport in the area.

“The state government has commenced works on the development of the Lekki-Epe International Airport to complement activities at the zone and also provide alternative air transport services in the state. The State Government has successfully obtained the site approval for the airport from the Federal Ministry of Aviation and has also completed the master plan of the 3,500 hectares of land earmarked for the project.

“The Lekki-Epe International Airport is designed to handle about five million passengers annually with provision for a modular terminal for future expansion. Preliminary works on the airport project have commenced with the clearing of 150 hectares (runway), 4.5km of the access road and 9km of perimeter road.

“The Lands Bureau has successfully completed the crop enumeration exercise on the designated site for the airport to facilitate the payment of compensation to affected land owners and farmers. In line with the policy of the present administration on public-private partnership, the proposed airport will be built and managed by private investors,” Oworu explained.

She added that towards this end, the process for the selection of private investors to develop and manage the airport has commenced, saying that to handle this process, a team of local and internationally acclaimed consultants namely: Stanbic IBTC (Financial Advisers), Arup PTY (Technical Consultants), Norton Rose (Off-shore Legal Consultants) and Banwo and Ighodalo (Local Legal Consultants) have been engaged.

On the informal sector reform programme, the commissioner said a lot of daily massive transactions  were going on unnoticed under a shadow economy, saying this scenario “leaves much to be desired in terms of the ability of operators in this sector to leverage on their assets for the creation of the much needed capital essential for the growth and expansion of their businesses.

“To address this development, the state government, in collaboration with the Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), a Peru-based Non-Governmental and Research-Oriented Organization has begun the process of collecting data on assets existing in the informal markets / extralegal economy, classified as ‘Dead Capital or Locked Assets’.

“LASG-ILD initiative is thus intended to assist the state in identifying the various constraints inhibiting enterprise and business units in the informal / extra-legal economy and aid their eventual transition to the formal sector,” she explained.

According to her, the programme would help to develop key institutional reforms which would be implemented by the state government to encourage this transition, adding that incidentally, the pre-diagnostic study conducted by the ILD in September, 2009 revealed that 90.2% of real estate assets in the state estimated at about $48.2 billion USD is located in the extra-legal sector with concomitant under-capitalization of business undertakings, and impoverishment of the masses.