Onitsha Port, other Eastern Ports set to come alive with Barges from Lekki Port
Strong indications have started to emerge that sooner than later, the hitherto dormant ports of Onitsha and other eastern ports will come alive in the shortest possible time.
This is coming from the disclosure by the promoters of the Lekki Port and Lekki Freeport Terminal (LFT) that discussions are ongoing to move containers discharged at the port by barges to the Eastern Ports of Calabar, Warri and Onitsha River Port among others to help increase the economies of those ports.
The promoters also stated that the $1.5 billion Lekki port would begin the transshipment of cargoes to landlock countries in the coming weeks.
Addressing journalists in Lagos, the Chief Commercial Officer of LFT, Kehinde Olubi-Neye, said the port has been able to execute the movement of more than five barges of over 900 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers from Lekki Port to the Ikorodu area of Lagos.
Olubi-Neye revealed that the company has so far invested $100 million in cargo handling equipment to fast-track cargo clearance and movements. He assured that the port has the technical capacity, draft and state-of-the-art equipment to recover transship cargoes bound for landlocked countries.
“We have been having volumes, we have been having import discharge and export of empty containers. We expect that we will start exporting full containers in the nearest future,” he said. He disclosed that trucks’ turnaround time at the terminal is about 40 minutes, while cargo clearance from the port can be processed between five to 10 days. He added that the port has completed a truck park that can accommodate 150 trucks.
Speaking also, the Chief Operating Officer of Lekki Port, Lawrence Smith, said there is a need to embrace and promote the port as it can create hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate billions of naira for the economy. He added that the company was conducting truck and driver registration to ensure seamless movement around the port vicinity.
