Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu of Lagos State has described the Lekki Deep Seaport and other businesses in the Lekki Freezone Ecosystem as critical contributors to Lagos being an investment and trade destination in the world.
Speaking in Lagos at a ceremony in commemoration of the arrival of -CMA-CGM SCANDOLA, largest LNG powered vessel to call at the port, Sanwo Olu said the port and other businesses in the Lekki area speak volume about Lagos’ capacity to promote trade
He said receiving a vessel of such size calls for celebration as it puts Nigeria in the global logistics map and attests to the place of Lagos recently ranked as the 19th Best City to visit in the World by a British Media and Hospitality Company.
“I think it’s a big feat, it’s something that we need to roll out drums and get proud of, because what that is highly commendable, indeed. We’re putting Lekki Freeport, we’re putting Lagos, we’re putting Nigeria into the world’s global logistics and marine business map
“This is a business that has been a privilege to a few countries, developed countries in America, in Europe, Far East and in some parts of Africa as well.
Lagos is open to business given the size of ships that can be received and given the size of the business that can come to our community,” he said.
Also speaking, the Managing Director of Lekki Deep Seaport, Du Rougang, said that the berthing of the vessel is creating a new plan for Nigeria’s ports.
“We want to ensure that Lekki Port plays a major role in the nation’s maritime industry, ” he said.
Also speaking at the event Managing Director of CMA-CGM in Nigeria,Hinelder Ferreira reiterated that his company is committed to greener shipping for efficiency and cost effective import and export trade
Ferreira said his company has invested over $50b in 20 other LNG powered ships to boost global trade in an environmentally friendly way.
He added that CMA-CGM vessels will call weekly to lift goods for import and export and achieve faster turnaround time, improving connectivity with neighbouring countries while
putting Nigeria at the heart of its operations for transhipment
The Minister of Marime and Blue Econnomy, Adegboyega Oyetola said government will place priority on vessels that meets the requirements for environmental standards.
Oyetola who was represented at the event by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr Mohammed Bello-Koko, said that the government is procuring the needed tools to enhance the capacity of the NPA for sulphur analysis.
Recall that the International Maritime Organization’s Green House Gas Strategy 2023, which envisaged a reduction in carbon intensity of international shipping by at least 40 per cent by the year 2030.
Speaking further, Oyetola said, “To put action behind our word, we have taken concrete steps towards the procurement of necessary tools to enhance NPA’s capacity for sulphur analysis as well as put in place a sanction regime for vessels who contravene the sulphur regulations,”
Oyetola reiterated the need to minimise air pollution created in the shipping industry by reducing the sulphur content of the fuels that ships use.
“So transition to the use of natural gas which is more environmentally friendly by vessels plying our waterways is a most welcome development. This is driven by in the larger national interest due to the fact that Nigeria’s gas quality is reputed to be high and virtually without sulphur,” Oyetola added.
According to him, “The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy is convinced that shipping has a pivotal role to play in global decarbonisation efforts, this is why I will like to seize this moment to commend the management of the NPS’s compliance with the Ministerial directive to take cognizance of global energy transition in its port modernization project by deliberately factoring in measures that promote energy efficiency,”
The former Osun State Governor said that aside from the vessel’s distinctive feature of eco-friendliness, ‘Scandola’ ranks amongst the largest container ships to be calling in West Africa with 15,000 twenty equivalent-units.
He said that with shipping volumes promising to get higher, forward looking investments such as the one we are gathered here to celebrate will certainly have a big impact in the long run.
Oyetola narrated that the importance of making the Nigerian ports eco-friendly is no fluke.
“We will continue to support the NPA in its efforts at ensuring stakeholders’ compliance with the International Maritime Organizatiosulfurur Regulation on Nigerian Waterways,” the minister said.
