MD/CEO, LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi

BY FRANCIS EZEM

The Managing Director/CEO of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic Base LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi has said that the successful integration of facilities and handing of the 200, 000-tonne Egina Floating, Production, Storage and Off-loading FPSO at LADOL Free Trade Zone FTZ located within the Lagos harbours, Apapa holds a lot for Nigeria’s quest for industrialisation.

Recall that after a few years of integration work, the FPSO had in January 2019 berthed at the LADOL base, a 100 per cent indigenous and privately funded firm,after a long 90-day voyage from the Samsung Heavy Industry Shipyard, Goeje in South Korea.

The Managing Director, who spoke on the prospects of the Egina Project in an interview published in the April/May, 2019 edition of Business & Maritime West Africa Magazine, noted that the success story of the Egina Project has exposed other opportunities that would drive the nation’s industrialisation process if these opportunities are tapped into.

According to her, in terms of its contribution to local content development in the country, Total, the main project partners in conjunction with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC; unknown to many, have upgraded five facilities in the country, one of which was the fabricated integration yard in LADOL.

It was further gathered that this upgrade has given Nigeria the highest crane capacity in the African continent, as Nigeria through LADOL now has the only quay-side in West Africa that has ever been able to handle the berthing of an FPSO, a development that makes the country hub for large fabrication and integration works within the region.

But she noted that beyond these benefits, the Egina project is not all about oil and gas, as it has also left legacy facilities across the nation that can be used for a wide range of maritime and industrial projects ranging from building of bridges, power plants to rail lines.

It was gathered that in view of these opportunities brought about by the Egina project, LADOL is projecting towards working with exporters of agricultural products, companies involved in building of trains and related equipment and a range of different boats, which will ultimately make Nigeria hub for all industrial activities within the West African sub-region.

“The significance of the Egina Project both for the local content and oil and gas industry cannot be over-emphasised. But it is not for the oil and gas alone. For me, the most exciting thing is that it has left legacy facilities across Nigeria that can be used for a range of maritime and industrial projects such as building of rail lines, power plants and bridges.

“So LADOL is now focused on working with agricultural exporters, companies that build trains, others that build a wide range of different boats because the key for us is to make that these facilities in LADOL are used to make Nigeria the hub for industrial activities in the whole of West Africa. So, we expect that people from across Africa will bring their large fabrication projects to Nigeria so that they can use the capacity available in-country as it is the case in Corpus Christi in America where people from the region do their large fabrication projects”, the MD also said.

She however made a strong case for the development of the other four facilities upgraded by the Total and NNPC partnership under the Egina project, which when added to the efforts being made by LADOL would enhance the creation of the projected 50, 000 jobs in the country, which would be in the fields of engineering, design, fabrication, technology, agriculture, general manufacturing, recreational and consumer services as well as real estate.

The LADOL-boss therefore believes strongly that driving industrialisation across the country would drive Nigeria’s economic growth and development thereby helping to increase her Gross Domestic Product GDP.

As part of efforts to achieve these, the company is working towards the development of indigenous human capacity that would drive the entire process.

To this effect, the MD said: “What we want to focus on now is up skilling Nigerians. We are opening our up skilling academy in LADOL this year. The first building is almost completed. We are also discussing with several potential partners including the Prince’s Trust International. We want to create an environment where Nigerians can be trained to do the jobs that they currently cannot do so that we can maximise the benefits of the facility we have in LADOL”