By Emeka Samuel
Akwa Ibom State government has said the Ibom deep seaport will begin
operations in 2021.
Mrs Mfon Usoro, Chairperson, Technical Committee on Ibom Deep Seaport
(IDSP) said yesterday in Uyo that the procurement process for the
operators of the seaport have been completed and that a consortium of
Bollore` group plus Power China will run the operations of the
seaport.
Usoro said the consortium is well-renowned in the operations of ports
and terminals and have experience in Africa, adding that the
government has commenced operations with the consortium on the Public
Private Partnership agreement.
She stated that the committee on the Ibom Deep Sea Port, Ministry of
Transport, Nigeria Ports Authority and the Infrastructure Concession
Regulatory Commission (ICRC) have set up an aggressive timetable to
produce a draft document required for the project to be approved by
the Federal government.
She assured that all necessary agreements and documents for the
commencement of the seaport would be finalized in six months and sent
to the Federal government for approval
Usoro explained that the project team is working hard to eliminate
possible delays that would pose a challenge to the take-off of the
project to beat competition from other countries.
She mentioned that if the country does not take advantage of the
traffic that the establishment of the seaport would attract to Nigeria
by eliminating delays to the project, it may be lost to other
countries in the region.
She commended the state government for demonstrating commitment to
make the project a reality, adding that it has so far invested huge
funds into the project.
“The Ibom deep seaport project has already come out of the pipeline to
the extent that a preferred bidder has emerged from the procurement
process that we started in 2017.
“The preferred bidder is an international, well-renowned, experienced
port and terminal operator, that is the Bollore` group plus Power
China came together to form a consortium. We have covered the market
because they have the experience in Africa and own a lot of ports.
“The goal of our establishing a hub port is getting to reality; with
the procurement having brought up a preferred bidder, it is hoped that
in 2021, the port will be operational. Right now, we have commenced
operations with the preferred bidder on the PPP agreement.
“The major challenge that we face and anticipate is delay in the
processes but happily we have a project team that understands that
delay is not in the interest of our project because we have other
competing deep sea port projects in the region.
“If Nigeria delays, then the traffic will be taken by other deep
seaports in the region like in Togo, Ghana, Cote d’ivoire and
Cameroon. So the project team on the public authority aspect
understands that the delay we anticipated should not happen.
“That is why we have all agreed and adopted an aggressive, very
optimistic timelines. Apart from that delay which imparts on the
commercial indices of the business itself, we don’t anticipate any
major, deal breaking obtsacle.
“2021 is the date that we have agreed that the port goes operational
and we are going to complete all the agreement in the next six months
and obtain the Federal government approval,” she said.
