Lekki Port Will Drive Competition, Build Capacity – Capt. Iheanacho

By Gideon Nnaemezie

Harboursandport.com: Lagos - The completion of the Lekki Deep Sea Port is an addition of capacity to the nation's port operations If you allow freedom of competition, former minister of Interior, Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho has said.

The former minister who disclosed this in Lagos, said the option of Lekki, Badagry, and Apapa located in Lagos, alongside other ports available in other states of the federation, will lead to liberalization of the port business in the country.

According to him, “The liberalization of the port business in the country will create competition between terminals in the ports, so you have the ability to choose whichever one you want depending on the pricing and quality of service being rendered.

“The same thing applies on a larger scale to the ports in other parts of Nigeria (Port Harcourt and Warri) whoever is in charge of rendering services in these ports will understand that they have to do better than the next guy otherwise they are going to drown.

“The idea was to create competition between terminals in the ports so you have the ability to choose whichever one you want depending on the pricing and quality of service being rendered. The same thing applies on a larger scale to the ports in other parts of Nigeria (Port Harcourt and Warri) whoever is in charge of rendering services in these ports will understand that they have to do better than the next guy otherwise they are going to drown.

“However, if you start it and we have a system where people are brought into the system when it is being implemented who do not understand the story of why these port concessions were granted then they are likely to go back and that is what has happened.

“This was the original plan, however with the advent of some people who had no understanding of the background story, and history, they relaxed back and Lagos became everything and there was no investment going into Port Harcourt, and as such we are where we are today.

“There is something to recommend in the plan to build more viable ports so that the international traders will have available to them a greater choice in terms of where they want their goods to be cleared through,” he said.