By Francesca Hangeior

The Director-General, Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, Dr Jobson Ewalefoh, has said that the construction of the 3.5 billion dollar Bakassi Deep Seaport would soon commence.

This is contained in a statement issued by the ICRC’s Acting Head of Media and Publicity, Ifeanyi Nwoko, in Abuja on Monday.

Ewalefoh made this known at a High-level Stakeholders’ meeting where a statement of endorsement for the port project was signed.

The ICRC D-G who said the construction would commence under the administration of Govenor Bassey Otu of Cross River State, assured that the project would be completed in record time.

He said that his assurance was premised on four things which include the fact that the government of the state had demonstrated great commitment and zeal required for the project.

Others he said were the newly streamlined ICRC Public Private Partnership processes; the securing of a financier for the project; and the support of all other stakeholders present.

Ewalefoh said the 3.5 billion dollar project whose funding has been secured from the African Import-Export Bank, is to be executed as a PPP project.

He said that the ICRC had streamlined its PPP processes to ensure they were faster than before.

According to Ewalefoh, we are not compromising standards, we are only making the process more efficient which I have commenced as the D-G of ICRC.

He assured the Governor of Cross River that the project would be completed under his tenure with the support of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, the Shippers Council and all the stakeholders.

The statement read, “You have demonstrated that you have what it takes to do it, just like President Tinubu has given confidence to investors to bring their funds to Nigeria.

“This is not a project that you started, the baton was only handed over to you, but like the man on the last lap, you are running the fastest and you will cut the tape.

“With the team you have assembled and the activities that are going on, you will arrive at the destination of the Bakassi Deep Seaport.

“I am convinced that in your tenure, with your team, Bakassi Deep Seaport will be a reality to the people of Cross River state and Nigerians.”

The D-G said that the port was very important as it would diversify the traffic from the Western Port and serve as a succour to the Eastern parts of Nigeria.

He added that the Bakassi Deep Seaport is an Agro-Value-Chain port that will explore the potential in the nation’s agricultural sector in the South-South part of Nigeria, the North as well as all of Africa.

Ewalefoh thanked Afreximbank for believing in the state and Nigeria as he reassured investors that Nigeria was a choice destination for investment opportunities.

The statement said a high point of the meeting was the signing of the declaration of endorsement by all critical stakeholders to the projects including the ICRC and the Cross River State Government.
Others include the Nigerian Ports Authority and the Nigerian Shippers Council.