Lekki deep seaport: Lagos secures $629m loan to fund project

Lagos State government said it has secured a loan of $629 million to finance the ongoing Lekki Deep Seaport Enterprise Limited (LPLEL), a billion-dollar project.

The State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Dr Lola Akande, made this known on Monday at the Year 2021 Ministerial Press briefing to commemorate the 2nd year in office of Governor, Bababjide Sanwo-Olu, held in Alausa, Ikeja.

Lekki deep seaport is being built on over 90 hectares of land at the centre of the Lekki Free Trade Zone, LFTZ, approximately 60 kilometres east of Lagos and it’s the first deep seaport to be built in Nigeria on Built Own and Transfer Agreement.

Construction of the initial budgeted $1.5 billion deep seaports began in December 2017 and is expected to be completed in 2023 after being reviewed.

The multi-purpose Lekki port will have container, liquid and dry bulk terminals to serve container vessels of up to 8,000TEUs (20ft equivalent units), dry bulk vessels, and liquid bulk cargo vessels, among others.

According to Akande, the loan secured from China Development Bank (CDB), is to support, facilitate the construction, development of the gigantic project and early operation in the year 2022 targeted period.

“Current completion percentage as at February 2021 stood at 47 per cent, trial operations of the port is slated for the third quarter of the year 2022 while commercial operations are slated for the first quarter of the year 2023,” she stated.

The commissioner explained that the project had provided job opportunities to 611 local workforces, including 32 local skilled workforces, 513 local semi-skilled and 66 local un-skilled labour.

The commissioner, who also spoke on the state of the ongoing construction of the Dangote refinery and Petrochemical Industry in LFTZ, said the project which has generated over 1,000 local employees, is expected to commence operation by end of the second quarter of 2021.

This was just as she revealed that the construction of an integrated petroleum delivery system valued at $230 million has been completed.

“The total number of 40 free zone enterprises were in operation as of February 2021,1054 local employment generated between October 2020 and February 2921.

“Though Lagos State government has no shares in Dangote Group, we stand to benefit from employment opportunities,” Akande said.

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