The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) says the Lekki ports does not seem ready for operations as there is obviously going to be difficulty in carrying out cargo evacuation.
The Secretary of the council, Emmanuel Jime, stated this on Tuesday at a meeting with journalists, in Lagos.
According to him, Lekki port would be in the same situation as Apapa and Tin Can ports because of the bad road network.
Seaport
“The greatest challenge of Lekki port is cargo evacuation, which is what we are facing in Apapa and Tin Can ports, as well as bringing in cargoes because we are talking about import and export.
“We know the present condition with connections into the port. The road conditions are not encouraging, and when port operations commences by September, we are going to have a problem in Lekki port,” he warned.
Jime said he has been asking questions on accessibility of the port, for which no answers have been given, rather the government, agencies and private stakeholders involved in the project have kept quiet about the issue.
According to him, although government representatives have been promising there will be solutions to the road networks and other transport modalities, he does not believe that anything can be done between now and the date of commencement of operations.
“I don’t see between now and September that anything fundamental would be done that would change the look and in the short term we are going to have a problem in Lekki port.
“The road network is very poor. I heard the Lagos State government and all kinds of stakeholders that are involved. With the way we are going about it, it does not appear that people are working in synergy to address the situation.”
“We need to have a synergised approach so that people know the roles to play. People say Lagos state government is supposed to do that road. When are they going to fix the road? When are we going to have the connection and when will the rail line be delivered?
“With the geography of Lagos, I just imagine how they will get the rail connected to get out of Lekki and connect to somewhere around Ibadan,” he said.
The Lekki Deep Sea Port, which is currently under construction, is a multi-purpose, deep sea port at the heart of the Lagos Free Trade Zone, projected to be one of the most modern ports in West Africa, offering enormous support to commercial operation across Nigeria and the entire West African region.
Scheduled to resume operations in September, the port is going to be the largest seaport in Nigeria and one of the biggest in West Africa, with the capacity of handling around 6 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent unit) of containers and a significant volume of liquid and dry bulk uncontainerized cargoes.
The port is to be equipped with ships able to transport over 14,500 containers.
In suggesting a way out, Jime, however, said barging should be considered, as it is the only possible means of evacuating cargoes from the Lekki port.
“In the meantime, barges should be up and running because that is a much more certain means to evacuation than the road networks,” he said.
