BY PROVIDENCE OBUH
APM Terminals and its consortium of partners have announced plans to develop a new mega-port project and Free Trade Zone at Badagry in Lagos State.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to open in 2016.

Also Plans for the adjoining Badagry Free Trade Zone will include a power plant, oil refinery, industrial park and warehousing and Inland Container Deport functions.

On completion, the deep-water full-service port will be one of the largest inAfricawith seven km of quay and 1,000 hectares (2,470 acres) of dedicated yard, and will include state-of the art facilities for container, bulk, liquid bulk, Ro/Ro and general cargo as well as oil and gas operations support and a barge terminal.

CEO, APM Terminals Africa-Middle East Regional, Peder Sondergaard, said that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA)LagosStateand the Federal Government have been supportive and positive, saying, “We are actively working with the Federal and State Government on the permission process.”

It would be recalled that in his keynote address at the 12th Maritime Seminar for Judges in Abuja in June this year, Minister of Transport, Senator Idris Umar, alluded to the proposed Badagry Port project as significant 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.

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

Sondergaard stated, “APM Terminals is currently one of the largest port and terminal operators in Africa, and in West Africa in particular, where APM Terminals Global Terminal Network include nine facilities in eight West African nations, including Apapa Container Terminal, and West Africa Container Terminal inOnne,Nigeria. APM Terminals Apapa, which assumed operations atLagos’ Apapa Container Terminal in 2006 is now the busiest container terminal inWest Africa, handling 600,000 TEUs in 2011 with through-put for 2012 projected to be 720,000 TEUs.

“Industry analysts have predicted that Nigerian container volume, which totaled 1.4 million TEUs in 2011, will outstrip existing port capacity by 2017, presently, about 85 percent of all Nigerian non-oil cargo passes through thePortofLagos”.

Over the next three decades, Nigerian annual container traffic is expected to grow to 10 million TEUs.

“The proposed Badagry Mega-Port project fits well into APM Terminals’ strategy of infrastructure development in targeted high-growth markets. Current new terminal and port expansion projects and investments includeMoin,Costa Rica;Callao,Peru;Santos,Brazil;Ningbo,ChinaandPoti,Georgia.

The Badagry consortium partnership is comprised of APM Terminals, Orlean Invest, the Macquarie Group, Oando PLC, the Chagoury Group and Terminal Investment Limited. Support for the project has also been expressed by the Nigerian Ports Authority, and the Governor of Lagos State.”

With 170 million people,Nigeriais the largest country inAfricaby population, and the 7th-largest worldwide. By 2050, the UN forecast thatNigeria’s population would have risen to 289 million behindIndia,China, theUSAandPakistanin global population ranking.