The MD/CEO of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mr. Mohammed Bello-Koko, said the inauguration of the Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos has led to the pulling of many cargoes from the seaports of the neighbouring countries, including Benin Republic, Togo, and Ghana.
Koko made the revelation while addressing journalists in Lagos yesterday.
“I must say it is the first time a government will start construction of a port, finish and commission it before leaving office.
“As you know, the Lekki Deep Seaport has been in the brain box for over 10 years; it is this administration that came in and gave all the necessary support through the ministry of transportation and the NPA.
“They have done the test run on all the necessary equipment, they have done their recruitments, people have been training and the vessels have started coming in, at least, we had a vessel that came in to take out empty containers and by April, we expect that the first commercial vessel will start coming.
“So business has started actually in Lekki Deep Sea Port. So, everything is ready and it is going to be automated as we said and all the gaps we observed either in Tincan Island Port or Apapa, whether in terms of scanners, equipment and others, you will find all of them in Lekki,’’ Bello-Koko said.
On the “game-changer’’ status of the Lekki Deep Seaport, the NPA boss explained that, unlike the two weeks it takes for cargo clearing at Apapa Port in Lagos, at Lekki it would be out in just two days.
He said business activities had started in the Lekki deep sea port.
“So, let us assume that we are losing 30 percent of cargoes meant for Nigeria to neighbouring countries and by the time we improve our services and efficiencies to get in the trans-shipment cargoes which we have never had in Nigeria, through Lekki deep sea port, that will be another source of revenue which is also huge; and, now, by the time you also have improved scanning and inspection system by the Nigerian customs, that will also bring in more revenues.
“We are automating our system currently and we already have the revenues mechanism, which we are using to generate revenues, to raise bills and so on and so forth, but we have been working with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) to deploy what we call a port community system,” he said.
Bello-Koko maintained that with the Lekki Deep Seaport the NPA had been able to wrest cargoes from neighbouring countries back to the country.
He added that with the new seaport, Nigeria would be able to generate revenue from cargoes meant for neighbouring countries.
“It changes everything. For instance, you are an importer, and you know that going to Apapa, sending in your cargo or importing your cargo through Apapa will take you two weeks.
“Whether because the road is bad, whether because the Customs scanning system is limited, or probably the automation is not complete and so on and so forth, it will take you two weeks. But if you take it through Lekki, probably in two days you are out.
“First of all, is for you to determine who are the importers of these cargoes and if you determine that, you will then ask why they are taking these cargoes to those locations.
“What we simply did was just improve efficiency. If you are efficient nobody wants to send his cargoes to Lome and starts dragging it down to Nigeria,’’ he said.
