Zakariyya Adaramola
28 December 2008
Citylink Marine Limited, the newly inaugurated water transport firm is to increase its fleet of operational ferries to 100 in 2009. Speaking at an event in Lagos Friday, the Chairman of the firm, Alhaji Tunde Yusuf said that the firm currently has 25 boats in its fleet and was continuing aggressive work on the building of more boats to ensure that it reaches its target of 100 boats before the end of the 2009.
He explained that the aim of the firm was not only to improve transportation in the country, especially Lagos, but also to create wealth locally. He said this informed the reason why the boats have been contracted out to local firms to build them.
CityLink Marine transport services was inaugurated last Friday by Governor of Lagos State Babatunde Fashola, in an event that saw the governor take a boat ride from Civic Centre located in Victoria Island to a jetty in Badore, a town along the Lagos -Epe highway.
The governor said the country had a lot of untapped potential in marine transportation and related services. He noted that in some countries, their economies thrived entirely on marine life and wondered why Nigeria could not do same given the mass of water it has.
He said that the decision partner Citylink, a private firm was purely coincidental and dated back to his days when he was campaigning to become a governor. He said he had promised to build jetties and was looking for firms that would operate marine transport, adding that when Citylink Marine eventually came, he was very happy with their idea as it fitted perfectly into his plans for Lagos.
Meanwhile, Fashola appealed for a handover of all jetties under control of the Federal Government but which are lying fallow to the state government so that it could put them to proper use and for the benefits of the generalities of the masses.
He noted that putting such facilities in to proper use would help ease the transportation pains in Lagos.
CityLink Marine Limited is a member of the CityLink group and was incorporated in 2007 as a water ferry company primarily dedicated to Lagos State marine transportation. In order to launch the company's services, CityLink Marine Limited is seeking to raise N 2.7 billion via a private placement sale of 49. per cent of shareholders' equity in CityLink Marine.
The Friday inauguration marks the commencement of commercial services by CityLink. The firm had been running a pilot in which it had been ferrying staff of some companies on contract basis.
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