At least three years of building work will be required before Lekki handles any cargo, and that will be about four years behind the original schedule. 

Addressing the 1st International Transportation Conference, organised by the Transportation Growth Initiative group, Amaechi said: “The Lekki Seaport was approved in 2011, but the project didn’t commence because of a lot of disagreements, including differences of opinion between the partners, but we are almost finished resolving the issues. Construction will start in January.” 

However, with the Senate Committee on Marine Transport wanting rail transfer options to be included in the project, there are concerns that further delays could occur. Somewhat surprisingly, the laying of access tracks and the development of an intermodal rail yard were not part of the original plans for Lekki. Nigeria has some of the worst highway congestion in Africa, particularly at its ports.

Ahmed Yerima, chairman of the committee, explained: “Rail should have been included in the port project, and, since construction is still to start, the Tolaram Group could still include it in the plan. If construction is finished without a facility for rail transfers, the project will have problems. We do not want to experience at Lekki the congestion we have on port access roads in Lagos.” 

Lekki is one of several infrastructure projects that the Nigerian Government view as being critical to the country’s trading future and mark of what  the nation is doing to improve its transport infrastructure. 

When the container port is built, it will be managed by Manila-based ICTSI, with CMA Terminals as a 25% partner in Lekki International Container Terminal Services LFTZ Enterprise, the company that will be responsible for operations. ICTSI signed its 21-year concession agreement for the terminal in August 2012.

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This complete item is approximately 300 words in length, and appeared in the November 2016 issue of WorldCargo News, on page 12. To access this issue download the PDF here.