Deep Seaport: FG Issues Cross River Outline Business Certificate

The federal government on Monday issued the Cross River State government an Outline Business Case (OBC) certificate for the construction of its deep seaport. 

The Minister of Transportation, Mr. Chibuike Ameachi, noted that with the OB certificate, the state would move on to the next step of action.

Amaechi, in a statement by the ministry's Director Press of Press, Eric Ojiwe, revealed that what the state government has at the moment is the OBC. 

According to him, the next move would be to verify all the necessary instruments needed by the ministry and then proceed back to the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC) or the FBC before going to the cabinet for approval. 

He observed that the most important thing was that the government is speeding it up so as to enable those states that want to invest in seaports and others to go ahead and do so.

On whether the federal government was partnering Cross River State in the deep seaport, Amaechi said: “We will get to that. We will sit down with the Cross River State Government and their major partners and see how much NPA (Nigeria Ports Authority) would want to invest. 

Similarly, the Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade, who came for the OBC at the  Ministry of Transportation in Abuja, said the certificate would enable the state to move on to the next level of implementation of the seaport.

Ayade said: “The certificate is an Outline Business Case. It shows that there is a full densification commitment of the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Transportation to say yes we have come to recognise and accept that Cross River State Government should go ahead with the Full Business Case towards the construction of a deep seaport.

"And the emphasis on the deep seaport is agro-industrial, not exclusively, but to show that the core target is to do an agro-industrial transformation of Nigeria. It will be the major leading port in that respect but will have other industrial parks."

He said the issuance of the OBC by the federal government through its Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission was the fastest ever recorded in Nigeria. 

On when actual construction would commence at the seaport, Ayade said: “Work started there more than six months ago when we got the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) approval which allowed us the legal right to get access to the ocean. 

“But right now with this OBC certificate, we are going to be dealing directly with the concessionaires towards arriving at the specific location, data and commencement of actual work plans. But that can only come with the FBC," he said.