‘We’ll make Lekki Seaport bigger than Apapa port’

The Lagos State Government has said the Lekki Deep Seaport would reduce congestion at Apapa Port in the state and would be four times bigger than the Apapa port.

The Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Sam Ebugbe who disclosed this yesterday, said the government had designed several intervention projects for seamless take-off of the port in the next two years. He spoke while declaring open the Equipment and Manufacturing West Africa Exhibition (EMWA) organized by Zenith Exhibitions with the theme, “Industrialisation and Innovation: Revitalization of the Industrial Sector to Unlock Nigeria’s Potential.”

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The three-day trade show targets manufacturing, engineering, machinery and supporting industries. He also said the state would invest in its human capital especially youths to grow the state economy, saying allocation to the youth would be increased by 23 percent next year.

“Lagos is in charge of about 75 percent of flights going outside Nigeria, and in the aspect of shipping, Lagos has about 75% of the cargo coming in.

“You can see the big seaport in the Lekki corridor, we believe operations will commence in the next two years. This port will relieve Apapa port which has reached beyond full capacity.

“We are already having conversations concerning the Badagry deep sea port basically to make known Lagos State readiness to begin competition in the Africa Continental Free Trade zone.”

Managing Director, Zenith Exhibitions, Mr Joseph Oru said the Covid-19 pandemic has forced many organisations to stretch possibilities and figure out new ways of doing old things.