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West African nations eye Ladol for integration

By Sulaimon Salau
04 April 2018   |   3:35 am
The Executive Chairman, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), Ladi Jadesimi, has disclosed that some West African governments are currently in talks with her company to assist them develop their own offshore facilities. Jadesimi, who disclosed this during a visitation of the Deputy Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in charge of Excise, Industrial…

Managing Director, LADOL, Amy Ladi Jadesimi

The Executive Chairman, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL), Ladi Jadesimi, has disclosed that some West African governments are currently in talks with her company to assist them develop their own offshore facilities.

Jadesimi, who disclosed this during a visitation of the Deputy Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), in charge of Excise, Industrial Incentive and Free Trade Zones, Patience Ifer, to Ladol Free Zone in Lagos, said this gesture was as a result of successful fabrication and integration of the Egina Floating Production Sstorage and Offloading vessel in Nigeria.

LADOL is currently playing host to the fabrication of the $3.8billion oil and gas logistics service facility commonly known as the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel to be deployed to the Egina oil field.

Expressing optimism that LADOL expects to host other fabrication projects in the near future, Jadesimi said it will be impossible for any other African country that has offshore oil and gas to be able to replicate the LADOL facility for a long time.

He said: “I say so because it is a huge investment, this one cost over $300 million and that was a few years ago. If you are to start today it will cost to or three times more.

So, I don’t see any other African country that can catch up with Nigeria in this regard. That was what the founders of LADOL had in mind to capture for Nigeria the lion share of all offshore-related fabrication, integration,” he said.

The Ladol boss said the company is ready to pay duty on the facility and generate billions of naira into the Federal Government’s coffers.

“We are going to generate billions of naira in terms of duty and this FPSO when it eventually leaves, because it is going to remain in the Nigerian territory, the customs will assessed the duty and this duty I am sure will be in the billions of naira. So it is a win-win situation.

In the immediate future all we have in our programme we are going to unfold, they will not only add significant value to the economy, in terms of employment and so on, it is going to generate a very substantial amount of customs revenue.”

He revealed the company’s diversification agenda, saying: “Our next immediate focus is in agriculture and agricultural processing both for internal consumption and for export, we are going to be involved in the energy sector, turbines and similar power related products.

We are also going to be involved in transportation and things like mobile phones. Now that we have achieved the core developmental assets we are now going to be unfolding all these other programmes,”

However, Iferi commended Ladol for the development and enjoined it to cooperate with the NCS in its quest for trade facilitation.

She disclosed that the NCS had granted the LADOL base a full port status with a view to generating more revenue.

Noting that the process of granting a port status to LADOL has long been concluded, Iferi said that she was not only part of the process, but has also seen the letter granting LADOL such status.

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