The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala-Usman has confirmed the deposit of $500,000 into an escrow account by the promoters of the multi-billion dollars Badagry Deep Seaport Project to signify their commitment towards the project.
Report states that, the project is being developed through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and overseen by the Federal Government, Federal Ministry of Transport, Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment, Lagos state government and a private consortium of APM Terminals, Orlean Invest, Oando, Terminal Investment Limited (TIL) and Macquarie.
Speaking in a recent interview with Thisday Reporter, Usman said, “If you recall, the concerns that we had on the Badagry Seaport was the fact that the transaction adviser, put in all government service into the Outline Business Case as the service that would be provided by the Port Concessionaire. Meaning that towage services, and all manner of marine services that are originally the responsibilities of government through the Nigerian Ports Authority were now handed over to the proponents as parts of what they would do in managing the Ports,”
According to her, NPA kicked against such Outline Business Case such that it was reviewed to include its comments, and ensure that those functions were removed from the Badagary Port Project.
“So, the NPA had to look very closely into the Outline Business Case to ensure that government is not shortchanged in the Badagry Deep Seaport project. We are through with that, and we are going to go to the next step where the final business case would reflect all the comments of the NPA and all our duties have now be reclaimed as duties of the government,” she added.
It can be recalled that the Badagry Seaport project is proposed to be located 55km West of Apapa and the port of Lagos,projected to be Africa’s biggest and most advanced seaport, expected to have an annual throughput capacity of 1.8 million Twenty- foot Equivalent Units (TEUS).
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