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.
Source:- Dailytrustng
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