The management of Ladol said it has made over $500 million worth of investments in the Lagos free trade zone, all part of its strategic efforts to position itself as a key player in what is clearly set to become West Africa’s major industrial hub.
Some of the facilities that are being developed by the industrial logistics company include a fabrication yard, warehouses, some 10,000 square-metres new workshops, and lay down areas.
Jide Jadesimi, an Executive Director and the Head of Business Development at Ladol, disclosed this recently in Lagos during a breakfast meeting which was organised by the Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce (NACC).
According to him, the facilities (for example the workshops) are being constructed with the intent to serve Ladol’s needs, and most importantly the needs of its many clients. This is in line with Ladol’s business model of enhancing local content capability for itself and other companies operating in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
Meanwhile, the company’s fabrication yard is designed to serve a multi-sector purpose. This is because asides fabricating ship, storage, and offloading vessels, it will also fabricate railway tracks, car parts, etc.
As Jadesimi stated,
“it is about maximising the potential and making sure that this yard is a Nigerian asset and critical such that it is beyond Egina.”
As we reported, Ladol earlier this year mentioned that these projects were in development, with the company’s Managing Director, Amy Jadesimi stating that additional infrastructure would be constructed “on its roughly 100-hectare (247-acre) free trade zone on an island across Apapa, Lagos’s main port.”
She had also used the occasion to disclose the company’s consideration to list on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and corporate bonds; moves that she believed could help Ladol raise capital to facilitate the projects.
Established in 2000, the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) has over the years continued to assert its relevance in the Nigerian economy. It is, however, important to note that its success might as well never have been possible except for the support given to it by Nigeria’s Local Content Act.
