Kaduna ICD comes alive as rail evacuation of cargoes begins

Abiola Seun

Barring any last minute change, the evacuation of cargoes from the Apapa seaport to the Kaduna Inland Dryport will begin in April.

Speaking to journalists over the weekend, the executive secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barr. Hassan Bello said the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has designated 24 flat bet wagons for evacuation and transportation of cargoes from the dryport.

Hassan Bello

Bello who stated that the rail evacuation of cargoes is another stage for the actualisation of the Kaduna dryport said the flatbed wagons are already on ground and would be deployed in April.

He said, “We just finished a meeting now with Nigeria Railway Corporation and they have so far been involved in the dryport that we now have about 24 flatbed wagons designated for Kaduna dryport. The wagons are on ground now and by April movement of cargoes will begin from the seaports to Kaduna and that will be another stage for the actualisation of the Kaduna dryport.”

However, the Shippers’ Council boss who frowned at report that Togo and Ghana are taking over as hub in West and Central Africa sub region disclosed that because Nigeria ports have become efficient and effective, 80percent of cargoes coming to West and Central Africa from around the world are destined for Nigeria seaports.

“For cargoes coming into West and Central Africa sub region, Nigeria has 80% of the cargoes while other countries distributed 20 percent among themselves so, how can they be a hub and Nigeria ports are becoming efficient by the day. We are attracting cargoes from other ports and the moment we get our infrastructure right and get our connectivity, importers patronise the eastern port and the government tackle insecurity, then we will see the real hub.

“We have the Lekki deep seaports with its huge capacity and when the Lekki deep seaport is on board we will get bigger ships and send the smaller ones to other countries.”

The executive secretary who also spoke on the registration policy initiated by the council said it is a step towards automating the port and cutting human interface that breeds corruption.

According to him, there are lots of benefits inherent in the policy which include easy payments at the port, encouraging electronic payment and creating conducive atmosphere that will reduce long dwell time for cargoes at the Port.

He said, “As far as we are concerned, people are registering online and manual, the issue is that the registration is on Know Your Customer (KYC) basis and as the regulator, we have to know who is doing what.
“The registration is about building our data base and using it to support who registers and provide services to them.

“For clearing agents, we deal with their companies, so if a company has 100 freight forwarders, it is only that company that will register, we cannot allow something to go on without certain knowledge so we need port operators, users to be structured in such a way that it will enable us weed out fictitious ones and those at the port doing nothing but causing confusion and corruption.”

Speaking on the benefits inherent in the registration, Bello stated that the benefits include “how easy to make payment at the port, encouraging electronic payment, creating conducive atmosphere and reduce long dwell time for the cargoes at the Port and cargoes will be delivered in time and this will be for the benefit of the shippers’, consignee and also for our own competitive advantage.

“What people fail to know is that we are in competition with ports all over West and Central region and once we reduce human contact and energise and electronise the payment system, we reduce delay and confusion and reduce the chaotic nature of the port so, then everyone will do business in a very serene environment because we don’t want the port to be a market place.”

He stated further, “it is a step towards automating the port, it is also a step towards having a port community system which is structured, automated in payment, cargo clearance processes and procedures and delivery of cargoes in time.

“If we go to the port, we see people hanging about, that is not a good thing so we have to get registered and this is to say they are our customers and we know their corporate addresses and the policy is about having a register of users and operators.”