"The Lekki Port project can well meet the needs of Nigeria's economic development, and the Chinese experience of port driven regional development will be implemented in Africa. As a commercial project of tripartite cooperation between China, France and Nigeria, Lekki Port is of great significance to further promote the joint construction of the" the Belt and Road "in Africa in the future." Cui Jianchun, Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, said this at the completion ceremony of the Laiji deep-water port project in Nigeria recently.
Laiji Port is invested, constructed and operated by China Harbour, and started construction in June 2020. The franchise period is 45 years, with a total investment of 1.044 billion dollars. It is the first modern deep-water port in the Gulf of Guinea controlled by a Chinese enterprise, and one of the largest ports in West Africa.
Over the years, 80% of Nigeria's imports and exports of goods have depended on Lagos Port, which has been used for many years. Affected by the backward construction of roads and ports, Nigeria is now saturated. Lekki Port can dock 18000 TEU container ships, and the annual design throughput of the port is 120000 TEUs. The completion of Lekki Port will make Lagos a maritime logistics center in West and Central Africa, and provide nearly 200000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigeria in the next few years, which will effectively release Nigeria's economic development potential.
This also brings new development opportunities to the Lekki Free Trade Zone, which is built and operated by China Africa cooperation and adjacent to Lekki Port. The earliest planning goal of Laiji Free Trade Zone is to build a modern comprehensive new city integrating production, life, leisure and entertainment, mainly developing four industries, including processing and manufacturing industry, trade and logistics industry, real estate industry and urban service industry. However, with the construction of Lekki Port and Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, to build the world's largest single refinery next to the Free Trade Zone, Lekki Free Trade Zone has adjusted its development strategy to build a modern new city near the port.
The completion of Lekki Port brings Lekki Free Trade Zone closer to this goal.
"Lekki Port is the crystallization of China Nigeria friendly relations and the bridge and link connecting Nigeria to the world. Together with the Lekki Free Trade Zone, it has formed a sound development pattern of front port, middle area and back city. The Lekki Free Trade Zone and Lekki Port are crucial to the future development of Lagos and even Nigeria as a whole. The Lekki Free Trade Zone and Lekki Port will unswervingly move forward towards the goal and direction of" you have me, you have me ", and then continue And promote the consolidation and development of China Nepal relations. " Lu Dapeng, the person in charge of investment promotion of Lekki Investment Co., Ltd. in China Africa, said that because it is close to the port, trade, logistics, e-commerce, bonded and other businesses will become the key areas of the future development of Lekki Free Trade Zone, especially e-commerce will become the focus of the next strategic development of the Free Trade Zone.
Lu Dapeng believes that the operation of Laiji Port will greatly ease the operation pressure of local customs, and also bring great development opportunities to Laiji Free Trade Zone, especially attracting upstream and downstream industrial chain enterprises in industries such as overseas warehouses, bonded warehouses, and international logistics supporting relevant ports to invest in the Free Trade Zone. He said that at present, a number of leading enterprises from machinery manufacturing, power supply, new energy, photovoltaic and electronic information industries have made layout in the Laiji Free Trade Zone in advance, mainly reflected in the establishment of overseas warehouses and other businesses in the Free Trade Zone, which has greatly improved the logistics and transportation efficiency of relevant enterprises in West Africa, laying a good foundation for rapid layout and occupation of the local market. With the operation of Laiji Port, the Laiji Free Trade Zone will further enhance its functions as an important handle of overseas warehouse, bonded warehouse, international logistics, etc., so as to further attract more and more enterprise investment.
Data shows that in the first 10 months of this year, Laiji Free Trade Zone Development Company signed investment agreements with 11 enterprises in total, including 7 enterprises to purchase land, 3 enterprises to lease factory buildings, and 1 enterprise to sign power concession agreements; The area of land sold accumulatively reaches 128203 square meters, and the area of factory buildings leased accumulatively reaches 7400 square meters.
"In the future, with the completion of Dangote Refinery, petrochemical and its supporting industries will also be another key area in the strategic adjustment of Lekki Free Trade Zone." Lu Dapeng said that in the future, Laiji Free Trade Zone will also attract enterprises in the fields of automobile and engineering machinery, household appliances, home building materials, petroleum and natural gas chemicals, e-commerce and logistics. It should be noted that Lekki Free Trade Zone will set selection criteria for enterprises to settle in, select enterprises that are deeply involved in the construction of the "the Belt and Road" and can improve the efficiency of international production capacity cooperation, or enterprises that meet the needs of local industrialization level, and give priority to energy conservation and environmental protection, high technology content, high output value or leading enterprises to settle in.