Facilities at LFZDC to be completed before year end at the cost of $250m—Yonghua
The Managing Director of the Lekki Free Zone Development Company, Mr Ding Yonghua has revealed that barring any unforeseen development, the company will complete the delivery of strategic infrastructure at the site before the end of the year.
Addressing visiting members of the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment weekend, je disclosed that his company had secured the sum of $250m to commence sand filling on 50 hectares of land, water treatment plant, a single mooring system, N-4 road, and a 4-star hotel.
Yonghua said “I believe by the end of the year, the structure will be completed,” noting that about 116 companies had been registered to operate in the zone out of which only 46 companies had begun operation.
Yonghua called on the government to ease offshore banking policy and assist in the construction of wider access road to the zone, saying the existing dual carriage was too small to contain traffic to the zone when most of the companies would start operation.
According to him, “It now time for the Federal Government to support the zone with the construction of external roads as planned. As we know, the Apapa Port, for instance, has six lanes, yet the roads are congested. Here, we have just a dual carriage way.”
In his remarks, the Chairman of the committee, Senator Mrs. Fatimat Rasaki, called on the management of the company to activate deliberate business policies requiring companies operating in the zone to source their raw materials locally where available.
The lawmaker decried that virtually every material input are sought abroad by companies operating in the free trade zone, meaning that Nigeria had very little to gain after all.
Senator Rasaki in company of two other members including Senator Robert Boroffice of Ondo North and Yusuf Yusuf, representing Taraba Central, advised that provisions should be made to accommodate officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the zone.
It would be recalled that Lekki Free Zone was established by a tripartite agreement involving a Chinese consortium, the Federal Government and the Lagos State Government.
