Use Inland Ports to Ease Congestion, Business Costs—Shippers’ Council

By Adedapo Adesanya

The Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) has urged stakeholders in the North-West Zone to fully utilise the inland dry ports for export, to ease seaport congestion and reduce the cost of doing business.

The Executive Secretary of the council, Mr Pius Ukeyima-Akutah disclosed this during a familiarisation/stakeholder interaction with the Shippers’ Association from North-West Zone in Kano.

He noted that the NSC is saddled with the responsibility of promoting and developing inland dry ports.

“We have three Inland dry ports in the zone, Kaduna, Funtua and one of the foremost is Dala inland dry port in Kano,” he said.

The executive secretary noted that with inland dry ports designated within the region as origin and destination, stakeholders need not go to seaports to export their products.

“All we want is to bring shipping services closer to the shippers, so as to improve the service delivery and grow the trade and commerce in the country.

“As a shipper, you do not have any business going all the way to the seaport before you can export your products, you can export your products from these inland dry ports.

“Our target is that these ports will be available for even neighbouring countries to do businesses,” he said.

Mr Ukeyima-Akutah added that opportunities were provided for people to develop “through the use of this critical national infrastructure for transport services to support trade and commerce business in this part of the country.

“This government is promoting export over import, because we want to float the world with Nigeria forex, especially now that we are under Africa Free Continental Trade Agreement.

“We need to encourage our businessmen who are producing in this country to know that their products would be carried to the whole of Africa for the purpose of promoting trade activities.

“Kano happens to be a major point in terms of commerce in Nigeria.

“The establishment of this critical infrastructure shows that Nigeria is looking towards enhancing trade activities with other countries,” the executive secretary said.

On her part, the NSC Director, northwest zone, Mrs Karimatu Othman, said the council recovered over N6 billion for individual and corporate shippers.

“Your expertise and competencies in analysing multi-jurisdictional legal issues will assist us in dealing with challenges of trade disputes between shippers and importers abroad based on complaints we have been receiving in recent times,” she observed.

Mrs Othman commended the NSC executive secretary for improving staff welfare and refocusing the council in discharging its mandates effectively.

Meanwhile, Mr Ukeyima-Akutah, during a familiarisation visit to Dala Inland Dry Port, said the NSC would address all constraints to ensure that the port operated as a full-fledged inland dry port and not a terminal bound.

Earlier, the Managing Director of Dala Inland Dry Port Kano, Mr Ahmad Rabiu, appealed for a fully established Customs Command to ensure every process was done within the dry port.

“Since commencement of operation, we faced challenges such as transfer of cargoes to operate effectively in the facility,” he noted.