• Projects to create over 50,000 direct jobs, boost exports — President
Daud Olatunji
President Bola Tinubu has unveiled an investment package of more than $7bn for the development of the proposed Gateway Deep Seaport and the Ogun State Blue Marine Special Economic Zone, saying the projects will reposition the state as a major maritime and industrial hub in West Africa.
The President spoke on Thursday in Paris, France, during the signing of Memoranda of Understanding between the Ogun State Government and DP World, a global ports and logistics company, for the development of the projects.
Tinubu said the agreements represented a convergence of capital, technical expertise and execution capacity aimed at addressing some of the infrastructure and logistics constraints limiting Nigeria’s competitiveness in international trade.
According to him, the investment package is expected to attract more than $7bn into the Nigerian economy and create over 50,000 direct jobs when fully developed, in addition to indirect employment opportunities.
He said the projects would also strengthen Nigeria’s non-oil export capacity and support the Federal Government’s economic diversification drive.
“This is economic diversification made tangible. This is industrialisation made visible. This is Renewed Hope in action,” Tinubu said.
The proposed Gateway Deep Seaport, located in Ogun Waterside, is planned to have a four-kilometre berth and an 18-metre draft, features the President said would allow the facility to handle larger vessels and provide an alternative gateway for cargo entering and leaving Nigeria.
Tinubu said the port was also expected to ease congestion along the Lagos port corridor and reduce pressure on the Apapa and Tin Can Island ports.
He explained that the deeper draft would enable the proposed port to receive larger vessels while strengthening Nigeria’s access to regional trade under the African Continental Free Trade Area.
The President said the accompanying Ogun State Blue Marine Special Economic Zone, covering about 10,000 hectares, would be integrated with the seaport to support manufacturing, industrial processing, exports and logistics.
He stressed that the success of the economic zone was closely tied to the development of the port.
“The Gateway Deep Seaport is the critical infrastructure that will support the zone’s viability. A port moves cargo; a port integrated with a special economic zone helps to build an economy. Each reinforces the other,” he said.
FG promises infrastructure support
Tinubu assured investors that the Federal Government would provide regulatory and institutional support to facilitate the implementation of the projects.
He said government would also facilitate road, rail and power connectivity, while strengthening investment security and the maritime environment and removing bureaucratic bottlenecks that could delay the projects.
The President further linked the emerging Ogun maritime-industrial corridor to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, describing the Ogun section of the highway as an important component of the proposed trade corridor.
According to him, the 28-kilometre Ogun section of the 700-kilometre coastal highway is scheduled for completion before the end of the year.
Tinubu said the seaport and industrial zone would also form part of a broader strategic corridor connecting the proposed Nigerian Navy Operating Base and Dockyard with the OK LNG Project.
