The Lekki Deep Sea Port has reached 96 per cent completion, Mr Micheal Ohiani, the Acting Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), says.

He made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

According to Ohiani, his team carried out a regulatory visit to the project site in the last quarter of 2021 and was satisfied with the progress of work done so far.

Ohiani said that the Nigeria Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP), had projected that within the next 30 years, the nation would require 3.1 trillion dollars to build infrastructure which translates to 100 billion dollars annually.

“The Federal Government cannot do this alone, so you have to leverage on private sector investment.

“Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects are therefore, designed to bridge this infrastructure gap, including the Lekki deep seaport, which will become operational in the second quarter of this year.

“We also have the Onitsha River port that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved about a fortnight ago.

“We have the Lokoja-Baru port. We also have the Kano-Kaduna standard guage line currently under construction.

NAN reports that the Lekki Deep Sea Port was conceptualised on the basis of a significant gap in projected demand and capacity.

The strategic location, optimised layout and modern facilities provide Lekki Port a distinct competitive edge over any other port facility in the West African region.

Upon completion, it will feature three operational sub-concessions for the container terminal, liquid terminal and dry bulk terminal.

The container terminal is expected to have a 1,200 meter long quay, three container berths and a storage yard with more than 15,000 ground slots.

ICRC was established to regulate PPP endeavours of the Federal Government aimed at addressing Nigeria’s physical infrastructure deficit which hampers economic development.