The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) are targeting between $6.5 million and $7 million as daily revenue from exports.
The President of DIL, Aliko Dangote, explained during a visit to NPA’s head office in Lagos on Monday that the company would start exporting coal out of Nigeria in the next couple of weeks, adding that its fertiliser export would be almost like eight cargoes.
Dangote said that the refinery operations would not export less than 25 million tonnes of various products.
According to him, the company will also be exporting almost about 600,000 to 700,000 metric tonnes of polypropylene.
Dangote said: “So when you are talking about export, we are going to be very big.
“In the next two years, we will be exporting almost about 16,000 tonnes of fertiliser. When you talk about 16,000 tonnes of fertiliser,
Dangote explained that as the biggest customer to the NPA, it was important that the interaction between NPA and DIL should be sustained.
He explained: “We are here to thank the NPA for doing a great job, because as we speak today, we are the biggest or largest customer to NPA.
“I think this kind of interaction between us and them is very, very important for the growth of the industry. So, we discussed quite a lot of issues. We also discussed issues of how to deepen the Marine and Blue Economy of the nation. And we have agreed to actually work together for the benefit of Nigeria.
“The size of our own operation at Lekki alone is going to be almost 240 ships of crude, with each ship carrying one million crude each. And then we will have products which now will amount to over 600 ships in a year. Then we also have our fertiliser operation, which will be loading almost eight ships. This is an operation that has never, ever been seen in the country. So, it’s a major challenge.”
But with the leadership of the NPA, Dangote stressed that DIL was very comfortable that they would able to deliver, saying that the DIL operations would sink if NPA doesn’t give it the services needed for operations.
He added : “So, the NPA will be needing a lot of support from the Federal Government because they won’t be able to do these things with their own physical hands. They need equipment. They need more Tug Boats.
“We will also be putting in some few words in necessary quarters to make sure that NPA gets all the necessary assistance from the Federal Government.”
In the area of export, Aliko Dangote explained that efforts are on to expand export products outside Nigeria.
“We will soon be massively expanding our export operations. For some of you that have been to our Cement factory in Itori, we’re already exporting cement out of Nigeria. We have a whole factory of six million tons for cement export.
“With our export programme, our company will be the major supplier of foreign exchange earnings in Nigeria.
“So the operations of Nigerian ports will definitely double in the next one or two years.”
In his own remark, the NPA Managing Director, Abubakar Dantsoho explained that Aliko Dangote had come to the authority to show appreciation for the dividends of the Naira for Crude sale policy of the Federal Government.
Dantsoho said: “Alhaji AlikoDangote is here to show appreciation, especially regarding the establishment of the One – Stop – Shop policy on Naira for Crude deal, which is being coordinated by the Nigerian Port Authority.
“He’s here to appreciate that the initiative has contributed immensely to achieving a lot of efficiency in the area of the transactions and operations between Nigerian government agencies.
“This is something that started on the 1st of October last year 2024, and so far, we have treated or operated over 57 vessels every month.
“The projected volume that Dangote was looking at per annum was 600 vessels. If you do 56, 57 vessels into 12 months, you will see that we are already doing bigger than what they projected. We will continue to do our best with support from government.
“If all agencies of government can collaborate and be on the same dashboard, then efficiencies in other sectors of the economy will also be witnessed.
“We’re happy that government has approved the National Single Window. We’re also happy that as of today, we are 95 per cent ready for the Port Community System.
“There are two ways you can handle capacity improvement/expansion or deepen port capacity. You can do it on a brownfield, which is, you renovate or rehabilitate existing ports; or on a greenfield, which is build new ports.
“The last time government built a new port in Nigeria was 1977, which was Tin-Can Island Port. There is already an approval for the port modernization of both Tin-Can and Apapa ports. We are hopefully looking at maybe third quarter of this year to commence construction. That is on the brownfield.”
