The Bakassi groundbreaking is welcome. The harder questions are procurement, coastal protection and whether the promised benefits reach the communities around the port.
The Bakassi deep seaport is the kind of long-horizon infrastructure Nigeria has talked about for years. The groundbreaking is welcome. The harder work begins now.
A 20-metre draft and a 260-kilometre evacuation corridor could ease pressure on Lagos and open a new trade route for the south-east and south-south. Those benefits depend on transparent procurement, realistic financing and a credible construction timetable.
The project also sits in a sensitive coastal environment. Nigeria should publish the environmental and social safeguards, protect fishing communities and explain how the promised jobs will be shared. A port that repeats the mistakes of the oil era will not be the legacy the country needs.
Source: Premium Times. Image: Premium Times.