Nigeria’s first deep sea port was handed over to the government after the completion of the massive maritime project by the China Harbor Engineering Company Ltd (CHEC) on Monday in the country’s economic hub city, Lagos.

The construction of the project commenced in June 2020 and is designed to carry 1.2 million standard containers in a year making it the largest in Nigeria and one of the biggest in West Africa.

A completion ceremony of the Lekki port was held at the Lekki Area Site in Lagos State which brought together dignitaries and stakeholders from Nigeria and China as well as their international partners.

Babajide Sanwolu the Lagos State Governor in his speech appreciated the Chinese government for its support of Nigeria’s infrastructure and also acknowledged the Chinese enterprises for efficient and timely completion of the project.

The Governor said the project will be of benefit to the citizens. He said: “The benefit of this project and the benefits to our citizens can be better imagined, providing jobs for close to 200,000 people with direct and indirect jobs in the next couple of months ahead”.

He added: “we can see the figure adding tens of billions in dollar revenue to our country and to our state and to the host community in taxes and revenue”.

China’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun said the Lekki port is of great significance for promoting Belt and Road cooperation in Africa as it is a commercial project of tripartite cooperation between China, France and Nigeria.

Deputy General Manager of China Harbor Engineering Company, Wu Di said: “The French side has their experience, shipping routes and cargo volume, then our Chinese side has the construction, use, and maintenance of this port, plus Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa”.

The Lekki seaport is said to have two container berths which can berth the world’s largest Panamax cargo ship.