Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu (5th left), Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority, Mohammed Bello-Koko (6th from left) and other stakeholders shortly after receiving the vessel at Lekki Deep Seaport in Lagos, Monday

The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko joined the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other stakeholders to celebrate the arrival of the largest container vessel (LNG-Powered) to berth at the Lekki Deep Seaport, Nigeria’s biggest seaport.

The vessel, CMA CGM SCANDOLA, with about 15,000 Twenty Equivalent Units TEUs, has a length overall (LoA) of 366 meters and a width of 51 meters. It is the first LNG-powered container vessel to sail to West Africa.

CMA CGM SCANDOLA being piloted by NPA Pilots to safety.

This is coming about one week after the NPA achieved a similar feat with the arrival of MAERSK EDIRNE, measuring 367m in overall length, with a breadth of 48.2m and carried a Gross Registered Tonnage GRT of 142,131metric tonnes and a Dead Weight Tonnage DWT of 147,340 metric tonnes, constituting 3,376 metric tonnes total cargo onboard. She was successfully navigated to safety by the highly experienced and thoroughly equipped Pilots of the NPA.

In addition to its distinctive feature of eco-friendliness, “Scandola” ranks amongst the largest container ships to have called at any seaport in West Africa, having onboard about 15,000 TEUs.

Lekki Deep Seaport’s natural depth of 16 meters added to its multifaceted efficiencies, state-of-the-art equipment and robust infrastructure, offers a capacity of up to 1.2 million TEUs in this phase 1. This positions the port to serve as a mega transshipment hub to Nigeria’s neighboring countries in the Gulf of Guinea and beyond.

In addition to pioneering of a full automated seaport from inception and facilitation of transshipment, the Lekki Deep Seaport has by this feat proven its readiness to exceed stakeholders’ expectations.