Ship Owners Sabotaging Kaduna Inland Port, says Manager

Given Federal Government’s efforts to decongest the seaport, the Manager of the Kaduna Inland Dry Port, Mr Rotimi Raimi, have accused foreign ship owners of refusing to recognise the dry port as port of destination.

Raimi, who spoke on the sidelines of the flag-off of rail operation for cargo delivery at the Kaduna Dry Port, said customers have been complaining of the reluctance of shipping companies to deliver goods at the port.
He said often time, shipping companies complained about poor infrastructure in terms of bad roads from Lagos-Kaduna, and the unstable price by transportation companies.

He noted that shipping companies has the responsibility to move the containers from the port of loading to port of destination, and hand over the containers to the customs, who then hand it over to the port managers. “We then store and hand it over to the business owners but that is not playing out now,” he said.
Raimi also stressed the need for shipping companies to incorporate the Kaduna Dry Inland Port into the system, such that when importers demand that their goods be delivered to Kaduna, they would oblige.

He noted that containers are at the Lagos seaport incur demurrage, while in Kaduna there would be none, as goods can be easily cleared at the dry port than at seaports.

With regards to transportation, he said the cost of moving containers by road from Lagos to Kaduna is not stable, could cost between N800,000 and N1million, which can be halved through the railway to as low as between N450,000 and N500,000.

He disclosed that since the Kaduna Port commenced operations last year January, it moves an average of 200 containers monthly, adding that with increased awareness of the rail system, container volume would be doubled, especially as the Nigerian Railway Cooperation is planning to channel more locomotives and wagons to the axis.