The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) have set sights on the development of the nation’s Marine and Blue Economy sector, with plans to ensure the expansion of Nigeria’s export operations.
Speaking recently in Lagos during a courtesy visit to the NPA Headquarters the President of the Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Aliko Dangote, explained that as the biggest customer of the NPA, it was important that the interaction between NPA and DIL is sustained. According to him, the group discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and Blue Economy of the nation, saying they have agreed to work together for the benefit of the country.
“We are here to thank the NPA for doing a great job because, as we speak today, we are the biggest or largest customer to NPA. I think this kind of interaction between us and them is very, very important for the growth of the industry. So, we discussed quite a lot of issues. We also discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and Blue Economy of the nation. And we have agreed to work together for the benefit of Nigeria. The size of our own operation at Lekki alone is going to be almost 240 ships of crude, with each ship carrying one million crude each. And then we’ll have products which now will amount to over 600 ships in a year.
“Then we also have our fertilizer operation, which will be loading almost eight ships. This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the country. So, it’s a major challenge. But with the leadership of the NPA, we are very, very comfortable that they’ll be able to deliver. Our operations will sink if NPA doesn’t give us the services we will be needing for our operations. So, the NPA will be needing a lot of support from the Federal Government because they won’t be able to do these things with their own physical hands. They need equipment. They need more Tug Boats. We will also be putting in some few words in necessary quarters to make sure that NPA gets all the necessary assistance from the Federal Government,” he said.
In the area of export, Aliko Dangote explained that efforts are on to expand export products outside Nigeria. “We will soon be massively expanding our export operations. For some of you that have been to our Cement factory in Itori, we’re already exporting cement out of Nigeria. We have a whole factory of six million tons for cement export. In the next couple of weeks, we will start exporting coal out of Nigeria. Our fertilizer export will be almost like eight cargos. The refinery operations will not export less than 25 million tons of various products. We will also be exporting almost about 600,000 to 700,000 metric tons of polypropylene. So when you are talking about exports, we are going to be very big.
“In the next two years, we will be exporting almost about 16,000 tons of fertilizer. When you talk about 16,000 tons of fertilizer, it’s actually about $6.5 million to $7 million in revenue that will be coming into the country on a daily export programme; our company will be the major supplier of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria. So, the operations of Nigerian ports will definitely double in the next one or two years.” Dangote emphasised.
On his part, the NPA Managing Director, Dr Abubakar Dantsoho explained that Aliko Dangote has come to the Authority to show appreciation for the dividends of the Naira for Crude sale policy of the Federal Government.
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“Aliko Dangote is here to show appreciation, especially regarding the establishment of the One Stop Shop policy on Naira for Crude deal, which is being coordinated by the Nigerian Port Authority. He’s here to appreciate that the initiative has contributed immensely to achieving a lot of efficiency in the area of the transactions and operations between Nigerian government agencies. This is something that started on the 1st of October last year 2024, and so far, we have treated or operated over 57 vessels every month. The projected volume that Dangote was looking at per annum was 600 vessels,” he said.
If you do 56 or 57 vessels in 12 months, you will see that we are already doing bigger than what they projected. We will continue to do our best with support from the government. “If all agencies of government can collaborate and be on the same dashboard, then efficiencies in other sectors of the economy will also be witnessed. “We’re happy that the government has approved the National Single Window. We’re also happy that as of today, we are 95 per cent ready for the Port Community System,” he stated.
On the development of new ports, Abubakar Dantsoho stated, “There are two ways you can handle capacity improvement/expansion or deepen port capacity. You can do it on a brownfield, which is when you renovate or rehabilitate existing ports, or on a greenfield, which is building new ports. “The last time the government built a new port in Nigeria was 1977, which was Tin-Can Island Port. There is already an approval for the port modernization of both Tin-Can and Apapa ports. We are hopefully looking at maybe third quarter of this year to commence construction. That is on the brownfield. On the greenfield part, as I said earlier, we have deep seaport development projects that have already been approved by the Federal Executive Council. We have Ibom Port, we have Bakasi, we have Olokola, we have Ondo Port, and we have Badagry in Lagos. These are new ports that the government is concerned about. Very soon, we’ll begin to see that these ports will become a reality,” he explained.