The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has approved an equity investment for the Lekki port public-private partnership (PPP) project with Tolaram Group in Lagos.

The deep seaport is a $1.5 billion public private partnership project between the federal government, Lagos State Government (LASG) and the Tolaram Group.

The Federal Executive Council (FEC)'s approval for the project and issuance of the finance guarantee was received in December 2013. Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has now carried out and concluded its due diligence on the project through its advisor KPMG.

The due Diligence was demanded as a pre-requisite to go ahead with the project.

Confirming the development, the Chief Finance Officer of Lekki Port, Mr. Sandeep Parasramka stated:

Apart from getting the concession from NPA to build Lekki Port, Tolaram has put together leading global consultants such as Standard Chartered Bank, the Louis Berger Group Incorporated, Delta Marine Consultants, BMT Asia Pacific, TBA Netherlands, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Pte Limited and GMaps following which the EPC contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company has been appointed to build the port and the container terminal has been sub-concessioned to International Container Terminal Services, Incorporation, Philippines.

The stage we are in now is structuring the financial terms, which will take a short period before funding is made available to Lekki port.

The project is expected to be fully operational by 2018. The project will make Nigeria the gateway to the West African region and will be one of the most efficient and modern maritime facilities, catering for containerised, liquid and dry bulk cargo par international standards.

Shareholders will now start to analyze funding and financing options to meet the commitment of having the port in operation by 2018.

In August 2012 ICTSI signed a sub-concession agreement with Tolaram Group, the Nigerian Port Authority and the Lagos State Government to develop and operate the container terminal to be built at Lekki port on an exclusive basis for a 21 years period.

In Early February we reported that International Container Terminal Services (ICTSI), Inc. sold to CMA CGM Group, a 25 % in the mentioned sub-concession agreement to build and operate the container terminal.

With a straight-line quay of 1200m and a yard area of 66 hectares, this modern facility will provide the market with an annual capacity of 2.5 million TEUs. The terminal is designed to allow for further capacity growth exceeding the initial 2.5 million TEU.