Newly Built Lekki Deep Seaport Receives Largest Container Vessel Ahead of Commissioning
- On Monday, January 23, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Lekki Deep Seaport
- The seaport received one of the biggest container vessels ahead of the commissioning
- The Lekki Deep Seaport has an array of features which makes it the biggest deep seaport in West Africa
President Muhammadu Buhari officially commissioned the $1.5 billion Leeki Deep Seaport for commercial use on Monday, January 31, 2023.
The facility which has been dubbed the largest seaport in West Africa will transform how goods are transported and traded in Nigeria, improving efficiency and connectivity as well as serving as a major booster for economic growth in West Africa.
Source: Getty Images
Port to provide hassle-free operations
The seaport received a boost ahead of official commissioning as the largest container vessel the CMA-CGM, owned and operated by a French shipping company docked at the port.
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The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) stated via Twitter that the arrival of the vessel was a statement of the readiness of the NPA to give maritime services hassle-free operations in Nigeria.
The port comprises an array of key features including a major breaker that is 1.5 km long with a turning circle of 600 metres with the capacity to accommodate standard containers and a channel of up to 16,000 and an approach of the channel of 11 kilometre-long.
Features of the Lekki Deep Seaport
It also has port terminals, a container terminal, a liquid terminal and the dry bulk terminal.
Leadership reports that the container terminal has a draft of 14 metres with the possibility for more dredging to 16.5 metres and the ability to handle 2.5 million 20ft standard containers daily.
The Lekki Deep Seaport is the first in Africa’s largest economy with ship-t0-shore cranes, known as ‘Super-post-Panamax’ cranes, with the capacity to reach and offload the rearmost row of containers even if the container ship is wider than the Panama Canal which is 49m or 160ft maximum boat beam.
The port’s automatic system allows for container identification and clearance from the office, reducing human interaction in physical operations.
Upon phase 2 completion, the port will have three liquid berths which will handle vessels of up to 45,000 dead weight tonnage (DWT) and could expand to a capacity of 160,000 DWT.
The bulk terminal has a quay of 300m and a Panamax class vessel of 75,000 DWT.
New airport in Lekki and other large investments that could make Lagos West Africa's biggest economy
Legit.ng reported that Lagos State, Nigeria’s melting point, is said to be one of the largest economies in West Africa, almost twice the size of the economies of Togo, the Benin Republic and the Niger Republic.
It is the microcosm of Nigeria, has the biggest Gross Domestic Product (GPD) in the country with $91 billion, and earns far more than any other state from internally generated revenue (IGR).
Lagos also leads other states as the highest indebted in the country. Data from the Debt Management Office (DMO) states that the external debt of Lagos is over $1 billion.
Source: Legit.ng
