The Management of the Kaduna Inland Dry Port Limited has disclosed its intention to increase the volume of activities at the port in 2019 to make it an easy way for imported items to get the northern part of Nigeria as well as for the export of agricultural produce from the region.
The Port Manager, Mr. Rotimi Raimi, who disclosed this to newsmen in a chat to mark the first anniversary of the commencement of operation of the inland port, said businesses generated from within the port could serve as a foreign exchange earner which would boost the economy of the country.
Raimi said the port had been hampered from realizing its full potential by the lack of functional rail and the deplorable state of roads in the country.
He said the challenge had made the cost of transporting cargoes from the Lagos seaport to the dry port to go up which has affected the volume of business.
He said the problem can only be tackled if the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) can make the rail workable and provide enough locomotives and wagons for easy transportation of cargoes from the sea ports to the dry port.
He said the Kaduna Dry Port which is the first of its kind in the country has all it takes to make the entire northern region economically viable.
“Though the Federal Government has promised that this year (2019), it will provide locomotives and wagons. If that is done, you will see that a lot of people will patronize us but at the moment, we are finding it difficult to get our goods out of the seaports,” he stated.
Raimi appealed to the Federal Government to hasten up the provision of locomotives and freight wagons as promised for businesses to thrive at the port and urged exporters to take the advantage of the dry port saying it would provide an easy way for the export of agricultural produce from the state to other parts of the world.
