NPA Gives Reasons For Deep Seaports Development

Following the global trends and increasing shipping activities in the nation’s seaports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is embarking on deep seaport development to facilitate activities in the maritime industry.

Giving the reasons on what informed the effort at developing deep seaport, NPA General Manager, Public Affairs, Chief Micheal Ajayi, told newsmen recently that Nigeria as the largest importer and exporter of cargo in the West African sub-region, one of the country’s deep seaports should become a hub for west and Central Africa, noting that Nigeria should also have at least one port that can berth a super panama vessel.

According to him, “we need a deep sea facility that load and off-load finished refined liquid, powder and containerised cargo. Bigger ships move cargo more efficient than smaller vessels, so the economies of scale make it imperative that shippers will buy new bigger vessels and these will have to dock somewhere,” he noted.

On the progress made so far, he said “remarkable progress has been made. Two-deep-seaport in Lekki, Lagos State and Ibaka in Akwa Ibom State are in progress. Already construction work has commenced for Lekki as agreement have been concluded. The first phase has so far gulped 60 million USD. And for Ibaka, very recently, the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Barr. Goodswill Akpabio, handed over the C of O of the land for the proposed Ibaka Deep Seaport,” he added.

He posited that globally the trend in shipping has made the deep seaport a necessity, “shippers are now moving cargoes with bigger vessels that require deep draughts to achieve economies of scale and for any shipping nation to attract a good percentage of World Trade you will need to have deep seaports. For Lekki we are looking at 2015, while Ibaka the date will depend on when actual construction work starts”.

Explaining government’s support toward the project, he said, “without the government we wont be where we are today. The government plays a major role in approving these projects. You will also note that most of these projects require Foreign Direct Investment (FOI) and government has provided the enabling environment to attract these investments”.