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Facts About The $1.5bn Lekki Sea Port In Lagos (PHOTOS)
On October 31, 2022, the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for Lekki Port, China Harbour Engineering LFTZ Enterprise (CHELE), a subsidiary of China Harbour Engineering Company, announced the completion of the construction works on the first phase of the $1.5 billion port.
The development of Lekki Port, Nigeria’s first deep seaport, was undertaken by Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited, a special-purpose vehicle promoted by the Tolaram Group and China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd.
The port was completed by CHELE and handed over to the Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited, to take over a fully completed port after about 16 years the project was announced with fanfare in Lagos.
Despite its completion, the port is yet to begin commercial operations.
These are some major facts about the Lekki Port
1. Lekki Deep Sea Port, operational, but still partly under construction, is a multi-purpose, deep sea port in the Lagos Free Zone.
2. It is the largest seaport of Nigeria and one of the biggest in West Africa. Lekki port is to be expanded to have a capacity of handling around 6 million TEUs of containers and a significant volume of liquid and dry bulk uncontainerized cargoes.
3. The port is to be equipped with ships able to transport over 14,500 containers.
4. The port is being developed in phases. Its phase one, be operational in 2018, chiefly comprises three container berths equipped to handle more than 1.8 million TEUs — one berth for dry bulk goods and two berths for liquid cargo.
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Read Also: Pictorial View Of The Finished Lekki Seaport
5. The port is financed by private investors and a consortium of banks who have funded the project with $1.5 billion as of March 2021.
6. The seaport is to occupy up to 90 hectares of land. It is expected to be completed in 2023 and operations to commence in the first half.
7. On October, 31st, 2022, the port has been handed over to the owners. Lagos State governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu promised on this occasion to expand the roads to the port to 6-lane highways.
8. The port has three terminals: the container terminal, the liquid terminal, and the dry bulk terminal.
9. The container terminal has an initial draft of 14 meters, with the potential for further dredging to 16.5 meters. The terminal is able to handle 2.5 million twenty-foot standard containers per year.
10. The deep-sea port of Lekki is the first port in Nigeria with ship-to-shore cranes. It has three of these container gantry cranes; they belong to the “Super-post-Panamax” group – this means that they can reach and unload the rearmost row of containers even if the container ship is wider than the Panama Canal (49 m or 160 ft maximum boat beam).
11. The port’s computerized system will allow container identification and clearance from the office, and human interaction will be minimal in the physical operations. Nevertheless, the port will create 169,972 jobs, according to the executive director, Du Ruogang.
12. The additional revenue for the Nigerian state through taxes, levies, and royalties are estimated at $201 billion.[20] A directive from President Buhari (who will, however, leave the office at the beginning of 2023) provides for the deep-sea port to be connected to the Nigerian rail network.
13. When phase 2 will be finished, the deep sea port will have 3 liquid berths. The liquid cargo terminal will handle vessels up to 45,000 DWT (dead weight tonnage) and can expand to reach a capacity of 160,000 DWT. Liquids (like petrol or diesel) will be handled at a tank farm near the port. The docking area is equipped with loading arms. It is also connected by pipelines along the breakwater.
14. The bulk terminal will be finished with phase 2 and will be situated on the west side of the container terminal. The available quay length of 300m can accommodate a Panamax class vessel[22] (75,000 DWT). Bulk products are brought to storage areas, such as silos and warehouses, via covered conveyor systems. The bulk terminal capacity is around 4 million tonnes of dry bulk annually.
15. On December 29, 2022, Lekki Port Enterprises announced, that it will fund a 800 million USD railway line from the harbour to Ijebu-Ode, where it will connect to the proposed railway line Lagos – Benin-City- Calabar (Eastern railway line).
16. The layout of the port, including the layout of approach channel, turning circle, and harbor basins have been derived from optimizations based on port operations, construction costs, and possible future extensions.
17. Two different breakwater concepts were applied for the main breakwater: A rubble mound with a geo-bag core for the near-shore sections and a composite breakwater for the more exposed sections. The main breakwater is 1.5 km long
18. The secondary breakwater was replaced by a barrier. The barrier consists of a core from sand, internally fortified by a protective geo-bag layer, a revetment on the harbor side, and an artificial beach on the seaward side.
19. The turning circle is 600 meters, enough for a vessel up to 16,000 standard containers (teu). The approach channel is 11 km long.
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