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LADOL has an extensive range of
serviced facilities and developed land,
enabling clients to have a soft landing
in Nigeria with minimal investment
required and/or build their own
facilities for manufacturing, fabrication,
engineering and other commercial
services. Samsung are one customer
who has set up a manufacturing joint-
venture here, called SHI-MCI. The
shipyard is the largest fabrication yard
in Nigeria and the largest shipyard in
West Africa.
LADOL currently has 200 permanent
staff and 1000 casual ones. Training is
a strong commitment for the long term,
so that the numbers of permanent staff
can increase. The administration head
office is currently in Victoria Island,
near the central business district, but
will relocate to the Masha Jetty site
in the future, for easier access to the
base.
The ferry port, handling LADOL’s
own scheduled ferries, brings clients
and staff safely to and from the base,
connecting to Ikoyi and Apapa. Utilising
the waterways in Lagos is a must, given
the heavy road congestion typical of
a booming metropolis. Lagos port, the
second largest in Africa after Durban,
is government-owned and inefficient.
The Maersk container port is opposite
LADOL, which leases the base from the
Nigerian Port Authority on a 25-year
renewable agreement.
MINTmarket
Nigeria, which gets 70% of government
revenues from oil, has been hit hard by
the plunge in global oil prices and has
recently spent billions trying to defend
its currency and introduced temporary
currency movement restrictions.
But growth this year will be 5%. The
government is stepping-back to allow
enterprise to flourish, while focusing
on security. With a consumer market
exceeding 180 million, economies of
scale attract foreign investors, even
more so as the country is seen to be
the gateway to the region.
Perhaps surprisingly, given the
vast natural oil and gas reserves,
Nigeria has a big energy deficit. The
opportunity to utilise shale gas, hydro
power and solar is there to overcome
this, however. The absence of steel is
one drawback. Importing it is too costly
for Nigeria to be competitive in ship
building, for example. Rail connectivity
is currently limited to the Lagos-
Kano route, but at least that enables
agricultural produce and equipment
cargo to get to and from the port.
The low-lying oil has been extracted
so now drilling has to be done down to
3000m. This requires FPSO (Floating,
Production, Storing and Offloading)
units, making the future of oil and
gas here an expensive one. “The oil
money has mainly left Nigeria in the
past,“ says Amy Jadesimi, “because
there were no facilities here. Now we
can berth FPSOs – that completely
changes the market. The logistics are
huge, as well as fabrication.” One giant
FPSO is being assembled at LADOL
by Samsung for the Total Egina oil
field. This is a new challenge for the
continent, not just Nigeria.
Tipping point
Confidence is key. “We’re at the
tipping point for LADOL now,” she
adds. “We need other ventures like
LADOL. If things go as planned Nigeria
will become key for the ECOWAS
7
Logistics Business Magazine | November 2015
Regional Profile