The Federal Government has said that construction works have been completed in the much-awaited Kaduna Inland Dry Port (IDP) and has perfected plans to commission the port in December.
Speaking at a one-day breakfast meeting held in Lagos on Thursday, with the theme, “Financing Transport Infrastructure,” organised by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi, minister of transportation, said that Kaduna port, which was concessioned to the Inland Containers Nigeria Limited (ICNL), has been completed and awaiting commissioning to begin full operations.
He disclosed that the Federal Government has also approved the establishment of six other Inland Container Depots (ICDs) in the country.
The minister listed the six ICDs to include Jos Dry Port; Isiala-Ngwa Dry Port in Aba; Funtua in Kastina; Zawachiki in Kano, Jauri in Maiduguri and Erunmu in Ibadan.
Hassan Bello, an executive secretary/ CEO of the NSC, who confirmed this, said that Kaduna Port has become functional as laden cargoes are being taken from the seaports in Lagos to the dry port in Kaduna.
“The Kaduna Inland Dry Port has become functional and Kaduna bound cargoes are now being taken from the seaports to the dry port. But, there is one area that is being perfected, which is for the port to be operated electronically. However, it is going to be commissioned this December,” Bello said.
According to him, the Kaduna Inland Port including the other ports developed across six geopolitical zones in the country, are going to be game-changers especially in the area of promoting economic diversification agenda of the government, bringing port closer to the consignees and decongesting already congested Lagos ports.
READ ALSO: Kano govt boosts dry port project with N2bn infrastructure
“In the dry ports, we are going to concern ourselves more with export trade because Nigeria cannot continue to be an import-dependent country. We have to start exporting our products to earn foreign exchange. Currently, we have a lot of containers leaving Nigeria empty due to a low volume of export and we hope to reduce that,” he said.
Bello, who observed that Kaduna State has the best ginger in the whole world, said that problems associated with transporting the produce from Kaduna to the seaports in Lagos for export, cause a lot of damages on substantial portions of ginger.
“So, the transportation and export value chain must be improved on and the ginger must be brought to the Kaduna Dry port for express transfer to the seaports,” he added.
Kaduna port, which has the capacity to handle a minimum of 29,000 twenty equivalent units (TEUs) of containers annually, has been declared, port of origin and destination. This means that it will be recognised by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as a port to which goods can be consigned from any international port, and from where goods can also be consigned to another destination anywhere in the world.
AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE
