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| L-R: DG ICRC, Chidi Izuwa, the Hon. Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and Gov. Ben Ayade at the handing over of the OBC for Cross River Deep Seaport project |
The Federal Government on Monday handed over the Outline Business Case(OBC) certificate to the Cross Rover State Government, which is part of documents required for the construction of its deep seaport .
Receiving the OBC certificate from the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, the Cross River Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, said that issuance of the certificate to the state meant moving quickly with the deep seaport project plan, acknowledging the fast pace of response and action by the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission(ICRC).
“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, FBC, 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,” Ayade said.
He also disclosed that work on the project had begun in the last six months when the state got the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approval, which gave the project a legal right for access to the ocean.
The governor added that receiving the OBC would enable them to begin direct dealings with the concessionaires to arrive at more specifics of location, date and work commencement, as they wait for the FBC.
Speaking on the development, the honourable minister said: “What they have got right now is the OBC. We will take the next move to verify all the necessary instruments that we need and then proceed back to the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission for the FBC before we go to cabinet for approval.
“But the most important thing is that we are speeding it up so as to enable those states who want to invest in seaports and others to go ahead and do so.”
Asked if the federal government was partnering Cross River state for the deep seaport project, 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 would want to invest.”