Mercury Maritime Concession Company, the principal proponent of the $27.29 billion Escravos Deep Seaport Industrial Complex Project in Warri, Delta State, announced that it has gained clearance and revalidation from the Delta State Government.
The firm noted that, in addition to the state government revalidation, it had obtained assurance from the Federal Government that the revalidation of the previous provisional approval would be issued soon.
This disclosure was made by the Chairman of MMCC, Rear Admiral Okoja in his address to pressmen in Apapa, Lagos on Wednesday, according to The Punch.
Earlier this month, AmBusiness reported that Okoja had disclosed the country might lose $27.29 billion on its investment in the project by the end of June.
The firm had blamed the extended delay on the Federal and Delta State governments’s failure to provide final approval for the project’s launch.
The company stated then that EDIB International of Hong Kong had expressed willingness to invest in the project as the financial partner for the port project that would be located on 31,000 hectares of land in Escravos (Gbaramatu Island/Omadino) Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State.
However, in an update on the project on Wednesday, Okoja indicated that the firm had received assurance from the government that the revalidation would come soon.
“We have received a revalidation from Delta State Government, which was communicated to us early this week. We are also in touch with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, the supervisory ministry for this project and they have assured us that the revalidation of the Federal Government would be granted before the expiration of the June deadline that the project financier gave us,” he said.
Okoja emphasized that the revalidation of the state’s offer of 31,000 hectares of land on Gbaramatu Island/Omadino, Warri South-West Local Government Area, for the start of the project was a critical step toward its realization.
He stated that the initiative would run across ministries, including the Ministry of Solid Minerals, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, and the Ministry of Power.
Okoja said, “The NPA is just an agency; we are dealing with the project at the government and ministerial levels. Our project is professionally driven and backed by extensive maritime expertise.”
In his remark, a director at MMCC, Ausbet Udebu stated that the project included one deep seaport, inland ports in seven states, and the construction of an intermodal transport system for freight evacuation.
In addition, he said that it would contain 45 kilometers of coastal roads, 150 kilometers of rail line to connect the existing Warri-Ajaokuta-Itape rail line and 600 kilometers of marine network.
He stated that the independent power infrastructure would include 2,000 megawatts of independent power projects, two 500 megawatts of IPP in two inland ports, and five 250 megawatts of IPP in five inland ports.
