Lekki Deep Sea Port — Nigeria's First Deep Water Port

Overview

Lekki Deep Sea Port sits within the Lagos Free Trade Zone, in the Ibeju-Lekki Local Government Area. The project, envisioned roughly twelve years before major construction actually began, was carried out by Lekki Port LFTZ Enterprise Limited, a special-purpose vehicle set up by the Tolaram Group and China Harbour Engineering Company.

Construction Officially Launched in 2018

Preparatory works, notably on the main breakwater, were confirmed as early as January 2018 during a monitoring visit by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, before the official groundbreaking was celebrated on March 29, 2018, by President Muhammadu Buhari. Actual construction work formally began on June 15, 2020, and was completed on October 24, 2022, with the first phase's EPC contract valued at 581 million US dollars.

Leading-Edge Technical Specifications

In its first phase, the port has a natural depth of 16.5 meters, a quay length of 680 meters, and a breakwater measuring 1,909 meters, with about three container berths. The container terminal was designed to handle up to 2.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, making Lekki Deep Sea Port Nigeria's first fully automated port, equipped with super post-Panamax ship-to-shore cranes and rubber-tyred gantry (RTG) cranes.

A Confirmed Operational Ramp-Up

The port was officially commissioned on January 23, 2023, by President Muhammadu Buhari, before beginning full commercial operations on April 6, 2023. Since then, several related infrastructure projects have emerged to strengthen the site's accessibility, notably a 30-kilometer stretch of the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway commissioned in June 2025, while an $800 million railway line linking the port to Ijebu-Ode remains under development, delayed by funding challenges.

A New Logistics Hub for West Africa

As a deep-water port capable of accommodating very large container vessels without the draft constraints limiting Apapa and Tin Can Island, Lekki Deep Sea Port aims to reposition Lagos as a leading regional logistics hub. This next-generation infrastructure, combined with its immediate proximity to the Dangote Refinery and the Lekki Free Zone, is shaping the outline of a major new economic corridor for the whole of eastern Lagos.

Sources: Lekki Port — Wikipedia, The Lekki Deep Sea Port Commences Full Commercial Operations — Mondaq

Administrative context

This neighbourhood is part of the Ibeju-Lekki LGA, which covers 455 km² and had 117,481 inhabitants at the 2006 census. These figures cover the whole LGA, not the neighbourhood alone, and the 2006 census is disputed. See the Ibeju-Lekki LGA page and Wikipedia.