NIGERIA Invest in 2012-13 - Newsdesk Media

Vehicle imports General cargo Container traffic
23% increase
(231,000 units)
of a new berth. Also at Onne, the Federal Ocean Terminal
has been extended with a new 570-metre jetty, contributing
to a total quay length of 750 metres. Construction work
has commenced on the remaining three berths to bring
the total quay length to 1,500 metres.
The establishment of the Onne Free Port Zone makes
Nigeria the focal point for the oil and gas industry in West
Africa. It provides incentives such as easy registration in the
Nigerian oil and gas market – drilling, construction, pipe
coating, ship repair etc – minimum bureaucracy, free corporate
tax, import and export duties exemption for goods within the
zone, 100 per cent foreign repatriation of capital and profit,
100 per cent foreign ownership, free pre-shipment inspection
for imported goods, free expatriate quota and the possibility to
sell products and services in the West African subregion.
It also offers excellent business opportunities to investors
wishing to participate in both planned and existing projects
that require huge investment – the Bonny Terminal, Eleme
Petrochemical complex (NNPC), fertiliser plant (NAFCON),
aluminium smelter plant (ALSCON) and the West African Gas
Pipeline (Escravos – Ghana).
The main investment opportunities are:
1. Bulk cargo terminal – major bulk commodities,
such as coal, sugar, petroleum, grain, ore and
bauxite, can be handled here;
2. Onne self-run transit terminal – this will accommodate
a container terminal, a ro-ro terminal and a centre
with trans-shipment facilities for the West African
subregion and neighbouring landlocked countries;
3. Lagos specialised trans-shipment terminal – this
will provide a breakaway from the usually congested
Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, serving both
the manufacturing and trading sectors.
Taken together, the Nigerian Ports Authority now has
13 major ports under eight separate port managements, 11
oil terminals, 128 private jetties, 102 hard-quay berths and
62 buoys – collectively contributing to a total cargo-handling
46.8% increase
(13 million tonnes)
INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURE 127
22.2% increase
(817,246 TEUs)
capacity of some 35 million tonnes. In addition, notes
MK Ajayi, general manager for public affairs at the Nigerian
Ports Authority, two further deep-sea ports are scheduled to
come on stream soon – one at Lekki in Lagos state and one at
Ibaka in Akwa Ibom state in Nigeria’s extreme southeast.
And trade volumes are undeniably growing. Figures
released in February by the Nigerian Ports Authority
highlighted a 23.0 per cent increase in vehicle imports
during 2011, taking traffic to 231,000 units; a 46.8 per cent
increase in general cargo to 13 million tonnes; and a
22.2 per cent increase in container traffic to 817,246
twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
“With the wreck removal campaign nearing completion,
and with capital and maintenance dredging ongoing,
Nigeria’s ports will witness a further increase in freight
volumes in 2012,” predicts Ajayi.
For inland waterways, the following opportunities are
available to investors:
1. Dredging of the River Niger;
2. Rehabilitation of Warri and Lokoja dockyards,
operational vessels, pollution control, etc;
3. Study and development of River Benue system
for all-year-round navigation;
4. Dredging of Oguta Lake for effective navigation
with larger vessels.
Elsewhere in Nigeria’s transport infrastructure, though,
the hard work that is being put in to improve the country’s
ports serves to highlight the scale of the task remaining.
Nigeria’s 3,505-kilometre rail network, for instance,
has seen declining volumes of passenger numbers and
freight, and is estimated by the country’s government-backed
Transport National Technical Working Group to account
for no more than one per cent of Nigeria’s land transport.
Worse, complains the working group, none of Nigeria’s
ports are connected to it.
Yet change is afoot, with the government of Nigerian
president Goodluck Jonathan pressurising the Nigeria Railway
INvEST IN NIGERIA 2012-13