FG Kicks Off Cargo Delivery By Rail At Kaduna Dry Port This May
Oru Leonard
The Federal Government has concluded plans to flag-off the commencement of cargo delivery by rail to the Kaduna Inland Dry Port.
The programme scheduled to hold on Tuesday May 7th, at the facilities premises in Kakuri, Kaduna state will have in attendance the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai and the Hon. Minister of Transportation, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi who will flag-off the service.
A statement by the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), the promoters of the dry ports across the country, said the Council will also hold an interactive session with all relevant stakeholders immediately after the event.
The interactive session with the stakeholders has the theme “optimizing the Kaduna dry port as key to Nigeria economic diversification.”
The stakeholders’ interactive programme/clinic will witness presentations on the following topics: “Inland Dry Port development and management – key to diversification of Nigeria’s economy; The role of Nigerian Custom Service in facilitating the operations of inland dry ports; promotion of exports and Kaduna Dry Port as key to Nigeria’s economic diversification and prospects and operational challenges of Kaduna inland dry port.”
Commenting, the Executive Secretary and CEO, Nigerian Shippers Council, Bar. Hassan Bello said the rail facility will lead to the full optimization of the Kaduna inland dry port adding that it will also drive down significantly the cost of transporting containers from Lagos to Kaduna.
“So much cargo is coming to Kaduna now but on trucks. It takes so much money to transport goods by trucks from Lagos to Kaduna. If it is by rail, the cost will drop by over 60 percent” he said.
He also said transporting containers by railway will also eliminate the risks of diversion, goods tampering and also reduce the risks of accidents by over 95 percent , thus driving down the cost of insuring cargo to Kaduna as a point of entry.
Barr. Bello also noted that with reduced cost of transporting the goods, the cost of goods will reduce which will further curb inflation.
According to him, ” in addition to the above, because a lot of containers will be transported by rail, the roads will be decongested as hundreds of trucks will be taken off the roads, also, the roads will witness low accident rate and long life span.
This should also reduce significantly the traffic jam on Apapa road in Lagos” he said.
