I AM SATISFIED WITH THE PACE OF WORK AT LEKKI DEEP SEA PORT – AMAECHI …. Says commercial activities will commence by September 2022.

Oru Leonard

The minister of transportation, Rotimi Amaechi has expressed satisfaction with the pace of work on the Lekki Deep Sea Port project.

The Minister who made the statement after an inspection of the project Sunday in Lagos said there is need to extend the port to increase the volume of traffic it can handle.

“As a layman I cannot say the percentage but I can say I am impressed compared with the last time we came here. But there’s huge improvement. But I’m being told by the management by June we will be expecting the cranes by September like we agreed they should commence commercial activities”, he stated.

Responding to questions concerning the source of funding he clarified that the project is privately funded.

“This is a privately funded project, over time they will collect their revenue from the commercial activities before they hand over to the federal government. But obviously taxes will be collected here even them will pay taxes, but I’m not sure there was any taxes mentioned in the agreement, but I doubt there is tax exemption, so we will collect taxes here, but we must say the confidence in giving them the project is because of the taxes that we collect here that will help in the construction of other projects”.

On discussing extension plan of the port area with the Lagos state government, Amaechi said.
“I think we need to talk with Lagos management again, let’s see how to re-orientate them because actually the need for extension will be understated if we ignore it. Now that there are 5,000 persons we need to have the discussion with the community, we need to have a conversion with the Lagos state government and make provisions for their reorientation”.

On the level of cremation and dredging
Here on the turning point they’ve gotten to 16.5 then the dredging about 680 meters they’ve done about 500 adding that automation will be like what is obtained in Dubai and Singapore.

“You will not see the market you see in Apapa and Tincan here, everything is automated from the gate till you get here. You will see something close to what you have in Dubai and what you have in Singapore”

The Minister said the project will be completed by June while commercial activities will take off in September 2022.