Kaduna Inland Dry Port to serve as final port for Northern exports

Abiodun OBA |.

The Kaduna Inland Dry Port will create necessary awareness for people from the northern part of the country to use the port as their final port for exports.

The Port Manager, Mr Rotimi Hassan who made this known in Kaduna on Wednesdaypointed out that the Inland dry Port is already strategising ahead of 2021 to render better services to its clients and to woo more partners in delivering improved services.

The manager said, “we want to put the setbacks caused by COVID-19 pandemic behind us and strategise to ensure economic activities pick up beginning from next year.

“We want to create the necessary awareness and publicity on our services so that people can use this place as their final port for exports from the northern part of the country.

“In the northern part of the country, there are so many exporting activities like the export of ginger, tiger nuts, sesame seeds, many other cash crops and solid minerals,’’ he said.

“The essence of establishing the dry port is to decongest the major ports and to bring shipping services closer to regional areas of the country.

While lauding the directive of the Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, on the expansion of the narrow rail gauge at the port to a standard gauge the port manager pointed out that this would enable the port to receive and dispatch more containers.

Hassan however, urged the Federal Government to intensify the rehabilitation of existing rail lines across the country and expand them so as to reduce the pressure on road transportation.

The Kaduna Inland Dry Port has 4,000 square meters capacity warehouse for storage of imported or ready-to-be-exported goods.