Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise (LPLE), the promoters of Lekki Deep Seaport has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a French container shipping giant CMA CGM Group, to operate the future container terminal of the seaport.

President Muhammadu Buhari had last month ago flagged-off the construction of the $1.5 billion Lekki Deep Seaport, the first in the country. When completed, the port will have two container berths, one dry bulk berth, three liquid berths, 1,200-meter-long quay as well as 13 quay cranes and will have a capacity of 2.5 million TEUs, with 16-meter depth.

According to the agreement, CMA CGM as the container terminal operator would be responsible for marketing, operations and maintenance of the container terminal at Lekki Deep Sea Port through its subsidiary CMA Terminals.

Speaking about the development, Chief Executive Officer of Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise, Navin Nahata, described the signing of the agreement with the CMA CGM Group as another step in the right direction towards the actualization of the Port, which would become the deepest port in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“We are excited about this development because CMA Terminals is a world class port operator and can be relied upon to provide international port standard delivery services at par with most modern ports around the world to the Nigerian port customers” he said.Executive Officer of the CMA CGM Group, Farid Salem, said: “We are pleased to sign this Memorandum of Agreement with LPLE to operate Lekki Port’s container terminal.

As Nigeria’s first deep sea port, Lekki Port represents a strategic choice for the CMA CGM Group. Thanks to its position and capacity, Lekki Port will allow us to bring to Nigeria larger container ships from Europe and Asia to better serve our customers and pursue our commitment to the development of the entire region.

“With CMA CGM’s unique service offering and expertise combined with our logistics and inland services, our presence in Lekki Port will benefit the entire Nigerian supply chain and market as well as neighboring countries,” he said.

The Federal Government of Nigeria recently pledged its total support to the Lekki Port project during the official flag-off ceremony by President Muhammadu Buhari who was represented by Vice President, Professor YemiOsinbajo.

The choice of Lekki Port, which will aid the reduction of congestion in the port of Lagos, is fully in line with the CMA CGM Group’s development in the region. Lekki Port’s container terminal will allow the Group to develop its presence into West Africa’s first consumer market and will serve as a transshipment hub, especially to neighboring countries like Togo and Benin.

The CMA CGM Group said it is highly committed to the development of port infrastructure on the African continent where it is the second largest shipping company. The Group is particularly present in sub-Saharan Africa with a network of 75 agencies and nearly 1,400 experts. In the region, the Group operates 30 services thanks to a fleet of 87 ships calling at 248 ports.

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