Lack of Rail System De-marketing $1.5billion Lekki Deep Seaport, Importers Boycott Port Soon

By DAPO OLAWUNI

Two years after the Lekki Deep Seaport commenced commercial operations, customs licensed clearing agents have raised an alarm that the lack of rail connection to the port is making it difficult for importers to chose it as a port of destination.

Immediate past Acting President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) Dr Kayode Farinto raised the alarm at a breakfast meeting on the implications of the China-Nigeria Currency Swap Deal, organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN) in Lagos on Tuesday 15th April, 2025.

According to Dr Farinto, majority of importers are no longer excited about the Lekki Deep Seaport and would dumping the port soon.

He highlighted that challenges of transportation through the Lagoa highways is time wasting and fraught with illegal fee collections by local government officials as well as other illegal non state actors along the roads.

“I have taken my time to go through the Lekki Deep Seaport, it is a very good development for Nigeria, but one thing is lacking which is de-marketing the port, and that is the absence of rail system.

“We need a rail system that would cost millions of dollars. Without the rail system, no importer wants their consignment to go to Lekki Port. When there is a rail system and customs agents understand that they can make use of it to get to their consignee without obstruction and unnecessary stoppage on the highway by local government officials, then the port would thrive

“Time is money for freight forwarders, and these time is being killed on that roads, if the government fails to address the issue of rail system to the port, the Lekki Deep Seaport would no longer be viable in the next few years because importers are already skeptical about taking their cargo to the port” he said