Why the Port?
As of this moment, Nigeria does not have a deep seaport. What we have now that may be closest to being a deep seaport are the Lagos ports which, by continuous dredging, has now been able to achieve a feat of between 10 to 12 metres depth. But that doesn’t make it a deep seaport because it still cannot take in vessels of over 15 metres draught. So we don’t have a deep seaport in Nigeria.
The second point is that the major ports in the country are currently all located in Lagos. Millions of containerized cargo in come into Nigeria; but relatively very few are destined for the Lagos metropolis. It is from Lagos Port that containers or palletized cargo are transported by road haulage to other parts of the country. The import is that Lagos ports which are on the Western flank serves the entirety of Nigeria, resulting in delays, accidents, high insurance premium and exorbitant freight rates.
Ibom deep seaport is designed for very large vessels, vessels that can load over 13 thousand containers in one voyage. It will be a transshipment port as smaller vessels will re-distribute cargo from the mega vessels to sea ports, river ports closer to the consignees within Nigeria and outside Nigeria. Now, let’s talk about Ibom Deep Sea Port relative to Africa. To the east of where Ibom Deep Seaport is located, we have about nine countries from Cameroun to Republic of Congo; on the western side is Benin, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana up to Senegal. The strategic geographical location of the port means it will serve the entire Gulf of Guinea nations and landlocked countries like Chad, Niger etc.
The industrial hub of this country is in the south east and part of the south-south, so if you have a deep seaport that is located in the Niger Delta, that is in Akwa Ibom, then the port will be able to service as its primary catchment area, the south-south, south east, north central and the north east. These regions in terms of population have over 50 percent of Nigeria’s populace. That means there is already a critical mass that is underserved by the existing ports in Nigeria.
The issue of the ports congestion and delay is because we do not have the capacity in our ports to accommodate all the vessels that call at Nigeria. The existing ports in Nigeria have no capacity to transport all import and export cargo. Most of the vessels destined for Nigeria, call at the ports of neighbouring countries like Togo, Benin, Cameroun to discharge due to inadequate capacity even though the cargo are for Nigerian market.
Ibom deep seaport is designed for very large vessels, vessels that can load over 13 thousand containers in one voyage. It will be a transshipment port as smaller vessels will re-distribute cargo from the mega vessels to sea ports, river ports closer to the consignees within Nigeria and outside Nigeria.
To the east of where Ibom Deep Seaport is located, we have about nine countries from Cameroun to Republic of Congo; on the western side is Benin, Togo, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana up to Senegal. The strategic geographical location of the port means it will serve the entire Gulf of Guinea nations and landlocked countries like Chad, Niger etc. The economy of Nigeria needs it.
