In order to boost the economies of the Eastern Ports of Calabar, Warri, and Onitsha River Port, among others, the promoters of the Lekki Port and Lekki Freeport Terminal (LFT) have announced that conversations are currently taking place to carry containers unloaded at the port by barges to those ports.
The $1.5 billion Lekki port would start transshipping products to landlocked nations in the upcoming weeks, according to the project’s developers.
Kehinde Olubi-Neye, the Chief Commercial Officer of LFT, told reporters in Lagos that the port was able to transfer more than five barges carrying more than 900 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers from Lekki Port to the Ikorodu neighborhood of Lagos.
According to Olubi-Neye, the corporation has already spent $100 million on cargo handling equipment to expedite clearance and transit of products. He guaranteed that the port has the necessary technological capabilities, draft, and cutting-edge machinery to recover transship commodities intended for landlocked nations.
“We have been having volumes, we have been having import discharge and export of empty containers. We expect that we will start exporting full containers in the nearest future,” he said.
He said that while cargo clearance from the port can take anywhere between five and ten days, vehicles can turn around at the terminal in roughly 40 minutes. He continued by saying that the port had finished building a truck park that could hold 150 vehicles.
Lawrence Smith, the Chief Operating Officer of Lekki Port, also spoke and emphasized the need to embrace and promote the port in order to boost the economy and create hundreds of thousands of employment. In order to maintain smooth mobility around the port area, he also stated that the corporation was undertaking truck and driver registration.
Regarding cargo evacuation, he stated that the Lekki Port has an automated system connected to the automated gate with a vehicle booking system where truck drivers are required to make appointments in advance.
He added that this supports the Lagos State Government’s initiative on the comprehensive call-up mechanism for the Pinnacle Oil and Gas, Dangote Free Zone, Lekki Port, and Dangote Refinery.
“We are in discussions with the Lagos State Ministry of Transport and other stakeholders on the deployment of the call-up system for the Lekki area and we have confident that the call-up system for trucks will address concerns of prospective port users will have over access to the port,” he said.
Mohammed Bello-Koko, the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), who was represented by Ikechukwu Onyemakara, the manager of public affairs, pledged that the organization will use all of its resources to provide the required approvals and offer marine services to the port.
In addition, Garba Hayatu, the zonal administrator of the Nigeria Export Processing Authority (NEPZA), told the seaport’s promoter that all incentives would be provided, adding that all equipment had been imported duty-free.
He claimed that the free zone offers an alternative for the government to diversify trade facilitation, given his knowledge of the difficulties of functioning in the Nigeria Customs Service domain.
