Promoters of Lekki deep seaport in Lagos State need $800 million to link the multibillion naira project to the rail line in the country, The Nation has learnt.

The huge sum, The Nation gathered exclusively, is what the contractors need to link the Lekki Deep Sea Port to the rail line.

The unbudgeted amount, sources close to the Presidency said, is the major obstacle threatening the inauguration of the much-awaited project by President Muhammadu Bihari.

Speaking with The Nation at the weekend, sources closed to the Presidency told our correspondent that “a group of private investors in charge of the Lekki port is erroneously waiting for the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), to invest the $800 million to link the project to the rail line in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital, since there is no single rail connectivity in the entire Ijebu land where the Lekki port is situated”.

The $800 million, The Nation learnt, was vehemently rejected by some powerful members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) because “it was unbudgeted for as at the time of conceiving the project and considered a fundamental flaw by the private investors that promoted the project”.

The disagreements over the body that is supposed to bring the $800 million, it was learnt, has contributed greatly to the unofficial inauguration of the project and its take-off since the promoters of the project announced its completion about a month ago.

Sources closed to Presidency identified the huge amount needed to be spent on rail as the cause of the delay in the inauguration of the project.

The Lekki Deep Seaport is a joint venture project between the Federal Government, which is being represented by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), the Lagos State government and a Singapore-based investor, the Tolaram Group.

The Federal Government, it was learnt, has just five per cent equity in the entire project, while the Lagos State government has about 20 per cent, and Tolaram Group with other investors has the remaining 75 per cent.

“Unlike the Apapa Port that has a rail transportation facility for easy evacuation of imported items, the same rail facility is missing in the Lekki Deep Sea Port against which the Federal Government is now insisting on a redesign of the Lekki port to accommodate intermodal means of transportation.

“The structural error in Tin Can Island Port will not be allowed to play out again in Lekki Deep Sea Port, which the promoters are waiting for its official take off any time soon.”

Few days ago, NPA Managing Director Mohammed Bello-Koko expressed concerns over the neglect of hinterland connectivity for the $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Seaport.

Presenting a paper, titled: Lekki Deep Seaport: Gains, Challenges and Potential Threat To Lagos Port, during the 2022 one-day retreat organised by the League of Maritime Editors in Lagos last Thursday, Bello-Koko explained that the neglect of hinterland connectivity at the Lekki port was likely to be an albatross for the optimisation of the benefits of the project investment as well as efficiency of the port operations.

He said: “With the immense benefits that Lekki Deep Sea Port is poised to offer in changing the landscape of port operations, there are the constraints of hinterland connectivity.

“This is considered a fundamental flaw of the planning process. It is important to note that the port is segmented into two: there is the aspect of maritime space and hinterland connectivity for cargo evacuation.

“While attention has been on maritime space, there is complete neglect of hinterland connectivity at Lekki port. This is likely to be an albatross for the optimisation of the benefits of the project investment as well as the efficiency of the port operations.

“For instance, there is no rail connectivity at the Lekki Port. Even the road connection is grossly inadequate. The only way out is to embrace barge operations in the short run. This does not foreclose the need for multi-modalism and inter-modalism that should guarantee the fluidity of cargo evacuation and ultimately efficiency of port operations.

“There is no doubt that operationalisation of the Lekki Port would be a game changer, not only for NPA’s operations but the Nigerian economy in general. It is, therefore, important that necessary logistics infrastructure be put in place to optimise the benefits and guarantee positive impacts.

“It may be necessary for the NPA management to create requisite synergy with relevant bodies towards addressing observable operational constraints. It would equally be necessary to engage in advocacy to sensitise various stakeholders in their respective roles in actualising the provision of these critical infrastructures,” Bello-Koko said.

Other stakeholders who spoke with The Nation also said the bane of the multi-billion naira project is the absence of a rail track which has marred most ports in the country.

They urged the Federal Government to look appropriately into the matter before inaugurating same.