Construction completed on Nigeria’s $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Sea Port.
Nigeria has begun its first deep seaport in Lekki, on the southern coast of Lagos.
Work to transform the seaport, which was planned from the start, on the site of Port Harcourt’s port, has been dogged and delayed by corruption allegations.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who has championed the controversial project, has not yet given a green light to investors.
The Port of Port Harcourt, a major port serving Nigeria and other nations in West Africa, will undergo a major transformation as part of a $10 billion plan to transform the Lekki port.
That project was delayed by corruption allegations, now resolved in court.
Mr Buhari has not given details of any potential investors in the project but Nigeria’s Minister of Information and Communications and Culture, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said the government is currently taking a call on who would be interested.
The head of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Mr Babatunde Fashola, told the BBC he is not satisfied with the present state of affairs in the port.
He says the construction process is almost finished, and he is confident there will be no more delays.
Fashola says this is a project that will benefit the economy of Africa as a whole.
A spokesperson for Mr Buhari said the government had not yet made the decision to award the project to any investor.
“But we are considering our options and what are best for this country,” he said.
In the United States, where the port and its future is an issue of intense interest, Mr Fashola said he believed the “deep sea port” would be an economic boon for the United States.
He said Mr Buhari was likely to announce the decision within a month or so.
DOWNSIDE
The project, at Port Harcourt’s Lekki port, has been beset by corruption allegations and a series of delays and controversies.
It
