Nigerdock, a leading maritime and logistics provider, is working on $1.85 billion investment plans to develop full-scale wharf infrastructure in Snake Island, Lagos State.
The Snake Island port, when completed, will bring the third wharf facility in the state and consolidate the status of Lagos as Africa’s biggest and rising maritime hub for the global merchant navy.
Cargo handling at existing wharf facilities in Apapa and Tin-Can areas of Lagos state is currently slow due to an activity surge.
The investment package comes with solid support from the federal government which had approved for the company to embark on development of full-scale port development and operations within the operated Snake Island Integrated Free Zone (SIIFZ).
The port development move marks a significant strategic shift from the company’s signature upstream oil and gas equipment fabrication and logistics support in the nation’s swamp, shallow water and deepwater petroleum play.
In the twilight of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved for Nigerdock to commence, expand, and develop the Snake Island Port through a Public Private Partnership arrangement.
The company had earlier secured authorisation from the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to operate cargo handling at the Snake Island free zone.
Chief Executive Officer of Nigerdock, Maher Jarmakani, declared in multiple statements that the port development would be a significant part of the cycle of investments to transform the SIIFZ into a full facility island that would provide a smart and eco-friendly operating environment for businesses that would establish in the free zone.
He emphasized that the company has taken a firm stride into commercial investments in the development of robust business environments to relieve entrepreneurs of the burden of multiple costs on self-power generation, infrastructure development and ESG compliance and sundry facilities.
The establishment of a seaport on the island, the company explained, also provides convenient and cost-effective import and export activities in a controlled business environment where collocation would afford players a ring-fenced business network.
In its investment outlay, Nigerdock states that the Public Private Partnership arrangement guarantees an initial investment of $1 billion; and subsequent investments totaling $850 million across the concession tenure.
It would be recalled that Nigerdock is driving an aggressive investment campaign to transform the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone (SIIFZ) into an exclusive business hub that provides a world-class business environment for enterprises.
The company earlier announced that it is welcoming businesses to the island’s congenial and low-cost enclave that addresses fiscal and infrastructural issues that plague investments in the country.
The public-private partnership model adopted in the port development is expected to close infrastructural gaps in the country’s maritime sector; it also fits into the existing policy on Ease of Doing Business through infrastructure concessions and free zones.
