DESCO Marine Group of Japan, the technical partner in the integrated deep-water port project in Onna, Akwa Ibom, has arrived in Nigeria to start work.

Mr Isao Koide, the company's president, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Eket that he was in Akwa Ibom to sign the Private-Public Partnership agreement with the state government.

The agreement was on the development of Akwa Ibom seaway channel and the construction of integrated deep-water port.

Koide said his group and Eton group, another consortium of investors from the U.S., Germany and South Korea, would invest $5.2 billion in the first phase of the project and an additional $20 billion in the second phase.

According to him, the facility has 24 deep-water berths to support multiple vessels with a capacity to handle 15 million tonnes of cargo per year.

Under the arrangement, Koide said the government would hold a 15 per cent stake, while foreign and indigenous investors would hold the remaining 85 per cent equity.

The first phase construction work of the Modular Terminal Port would commence in June 2008 and be completed within 30 months to pave the way for the commencement of the second phase.

Koide said the project was delayed for three years due to the Niger Delta crisis.

He said they returned to site because they were convinced by the Federal Government's measures to return peace to the region.

Dr Weizman Atemubaghan, Group Managing Director, Dersko/Eton group in Nigeria, confirmed that the Environment Impact Assessment and site development plans were in progress.

Dersko officials in Nigeria and the state government visited the project site last week.