APMT homes in on Nigeria

The plan includes a new deep water service port which will be one of the largest in Africa when completed with 7km of quay and 1,000 hectares of dedicated yard. It will feature state of the art facilities for container, bulk, liquid bulk, ro-ro, general cargo, oil and gas operations support and a barge terminal.

An adjoining free trade zone will include a power plant, oil refinery, industrial park, warehouse and inland container depot functions. The first phase of the project is scheduled for completion in 2016.

APMT’s Africa-Middle East Regional CEO, Peder Sondegaard, said that the Nigerian Ports Authority, Lagos State and the Nigerian Federal Government have been “supportive and positive” of the project so far.

The proposed project fits in well with the operator’s strategy for infrastructure development in well targeted high growth markets. Since industry analysts predict that Nigerian container volumes, which totalled 1.4m teu in 2011, will outstrip existing port capacity by 2017 it may arrive in the nick of time to help ease the regions cargo flow.

Just a few years ago APMT doubled the quayside capacity of its Apapa Container Terminal at the port of Lagos which is notorious for suffering from congestion problems – around 85% of all non oil cargo passes through the port.

Earlier this year the Nigerian Minister of Transport Senator Idris Umar cited the proposed Badagry Port project as an example of a public-private partnership development which would help to address congestion and establish Nigeria as a maritime trading hub for West and Central Africa.

Also to this end, the Benin-Lagos Expressway is currently being upgraded to a 10-lane highway which will help facilitate cargo movements to and from inland destinations in the region.