Nigeria has opened a multi-billion dollar deep sea port, built by China in Lagos, which is expected to reduce congestion at the country’s ports and help it become Africa’s shipping hub, transporting goods to other destinations.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who inaugurated the port on Monday, has made infrastructure a key pillar of the government’s economy and hopes that this will help his ruling party win votes in next month’s presidential election.
Most of Nigeria’s ports, which were inherited from British colonial rule, are no longer functional or less functional. Currently, most trade passes through the two in Lagos and the other two in Port Harcourt, the country’s oil capital, resulting in gridlock and difficulties in purchasing and exporting goods.
A local newspaper called Punch reported that the Governor of Lagos, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said that “the ships that are coming here can quadruple the size of the ships that are currently at Tin Can and Apapa ports.” [Lagos’s existing ports].”
The new Lekki Deep Sea Port is 75 percent owned by the China Harbor Engineering Company and Singapore’s Tolaram Group, with funding shared between the Lagos state government and the Nigerian Ports Authority.
Government officials say the new port, built at a cost of $1.5bn, is one of the largest in West Africa.
“This is a revolutionary, game-changing project. This project can create at least 200,000 jobs,” Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria Cui Jianchun told Reuters after the port was commissioned by Buhari.
China is one of Nigeria’s biggest lenders and has financed railways, roads and power plants.
