The 2.5 million TEU capacity port in Lekki will start operations in 2017, an ICTSI official said at the TOC Europe conference this week.
Chief Financial Officer and Head of Investment, ICTSI Africa, Gagan Seksaria, said the Philippines-based company invested $225m in 2012 for the 21-year sub-concession to develop and operate the port, which, once completed, will be located in a manufacturing and logistics free zone in Lagos. The facility will operate 14 post-Panamax cranes and will have a 670 metres diameter turning circle.
EPC contractors for the project are Tolaram Group of Singapore and China Harbour Engineering Co. Tolaram also owns Nigeria’s BHN Logistics, which runs a fleet of 600 trucks serving FMCG companies.
The terminal at Lekki, situated on the coast around 60km west of metropolitan Lagos, will have a quay of 1,200m, a draught of 16.5m and a maximum vessel size of 10,000 TEU. “Nigeria needs bigger ships. Lekki has depth,” Seksaria said. “It will be a hub for West Africa.”
ICTSI has interests in 28 port terminals around the world. In Africa, in addition to Lekki, ICTSI is developing Matadi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Madagascar International Container Terminal Services Ltd. (MICTSL), Toamasina, Madagascar.
Seksaria has overseen ICTSI transactions at Lekki, the $100m Matadi port in DR Congo and a management services contract at Port Sudan, while managing the existing investment at Toamasina, Madagascar, which has recently seen capacity double from 200,000 to 400,000 teu.
“P2 [Toamasina] is near completion. It will have a capacity of 400,000 TEU,” said Seksaria. “Growth has been dramatic.”
ICTSI expects to Asia to drive growth in its Nigeria port operations. Seksaria said that Asia’s share of African trade had risen from less than 20% in 2000 to around 50% in 2012.
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