File photo of the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi.
By BENJAMIN ORISEMEKE, Abuja –
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi on Sunday revealed that the Lekki Deep Seaport when completed and operational, would contribute $360 billion to the Nigeria economy over the course of 45 years.
The minister who disclosed this in Lagos after the inspection of the project added that it will contribute the sum of $360 billion over the years but “they need more of that money to accomplish what we want to achieve”.
According to the minister, “It also depends on how much the economy will grow before then. The growth of the economy will put pressure on expansion.
“The deep seaport was “a privately funded project, over time, they (contractors) will collect their revenue from the commercial activities before they hand over to the Federal Government.
“But obviously taxes will be collected here, even them (Contractors) will pay taxes, I am not sure there were any taxes mentioned in the agreement, but I doubt there is any tax exemption.
“So, we will collect taxes here, the confidence in giving them the project is because of the taxes that we will collect here that will help us in the construction of other projects.”
Amaechi noted that in the coming years, the port would not be able to accommodate high-level economic activities due to some constraint.
He said the argument we had in cabinet is that the need for a deep seaport at Lekki was a result of the fact that the demand for port activities in the country has exceeded the supply of Tincan and Apapa ports. round.
