THE Nigeria Customs Service, Apapa Area Command has received over N10 billion as import duties on behalf of the Federal Government from the various fabrication works carried out at the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL) base in the first two years of its establishment.
Also, the company said it has invested about $100 billion to boost infrastructure at its facility.
Stating this at a media briefing in Lagos, on Monday, the Chairman of LADOL, Ladi Jadesimi said the revenue collected by the Nigeria customs was made possible because of the successful implementation of the nation’s local content policy.
The Local Content Act was established by the Federal Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), to ensure that indigenous operators participate effectively in various sectors of the economy.
The Act was being supervised by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), a subsidiary of the NNPC.
Jadesimi explained that LADOL was now a full-fledged deep offshore logistics base within and part the Apapa pilotage district for having fulfilled government requirements, adding that the company could receive a maximum of two ocean going ships per week.
He said the approval was granted by the Office of the Minister of Transport, who received a written support from the Ministry of Finance based on the decision of a panel consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Ministry of Finance, Nigerian Exporting Processing Zone Agency, Nigeria Ports Authority, the Nigerian Customs Service and the Presidency.
According to him, the company was no longer considered a “private jetty” and was now officially a legal deep offshore logistics base within Apapa.
He, however, said the company has concluded plans to move to the next phase of its project, by investing in the development of specific infrastructure that would be able to handles large offshore structure in the country.
Specifically, he said the company would commence the integration of ships topside FPSO soon, being the first not only in the country, but also in Africa, as a whole.
“About two weeks ago, we held a presentation to the NCDMB of part of our immediate next phase. And this phase has to do with developing specific infrastructure that would be able to handle the very largest offshore infrastructure.” .
“There is something called FPSO. Now, other programmes and the company’s intention is to help gather the FPSO, not build it here, because we don’t have the facilities to build ships of that size yet, but what they called integrated. You bring it here and all the component parts will be fixed here.”
He however stated that such project would transform the government’s quest to create jobs for Nigerians, adding that, “that particular job alone, will employ tens of thousands of Nigerians. The fabrication of the components that will be done in many places in Nigeria will also create thousands of jobs. In addition to that, in order to finance the project we are doing locally, the contractor will have to inflow hundreds of millions of dollar.”
The LADOL’s boss, therefore, said it was only government’s support for genuine indigenous operators, who hope to take the risk to invest in the offshore business that needs provision of an enabling environment.
He said over 500,000 jobs has been created by the company for Nigerians in their different fields, noting that there was job opportunities in the business.
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Customs rakes N10b from LADOL’s operations