Philippine-based International Container Terminal Services, Inc (ICTSI) and Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise (LPLE) recently formally signed the sub-concession agreement for the development and operation of the container terminal at Tolaram Port@Lekki in Nigeria.
ICTSI was granted the concession to develop and operate the container terminal for a 21-year period.
The project is under Lekki International Container Terminal Services (LICTS), the newly created company between Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise and ICTSI.
ICTSI will invest in excess of $225 million to provide cargo-handling equipment and related IT infrastructure. The investment forms part of the $1.4 billion being invested in the entire port development.
With a quay of 1,200 meters, the container terminal is expected to be fully operational in 2016. By then it will have an annual capacity of 2.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units, making it the largest single terminal in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The port features 14 post-Panamax cranes and has a draft allowing vessels of 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units to call at the terminal.
“ICTSI is looking forward to entering the regional market with this eminent project, Lekki International Container Terminal Services (LICTS),” ICTSI chair Enrique Razon said during the signing ceremony. “This new concession will reinforce ICTSI’s presence in Africa and sets the standard for infrastructure developments in Africa.”
Mohan Vaswani, chairman of the Singapore-based Tolaram Group, said, “We anticipate that the demand at our facility will go beyond the expected 2.5 million TEUs. We are designing the port to allow for expansion to serve that excess demand in a short span of time upon completion.
“The multiplier effect of the Tolaram Port@Lekki on the potential GDP of Nigeria will be significant. The infrastructure alone will spur substantial growth prospects for the country and we are happy to be a part of this transformation,” he said.
In April 2011, the master concession for the port was signed between Nigerian Ports Authority and LPLE in Lagos, Nigeria.
The port will be built over 90 hectares of land in the heart of the Lagos Free Trade Zone, just 65 kilometers east of Lagos.
Facilities will include marine infrastructure and container, dry bulk and liquid terminals.
