Kaduna Inland Dry Port (KIDP), inaugurated with fanfare three years ago, is yet to find its rhythm as it continues to perform below its optimal capacity.
With the situation, experts have expressed doubts as to whether the facility could ever achieve its full potential and deliver the much-expected gains in terms of generating business any time soon.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reports that there were high expectations when President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the port on January 4, 2018. The port, according to its initiators, has capacity to handle 29,000 tonnes of cargo yearly during the first phase of operations.
The facility is also estimated to generate no fewer than 5,000 direct and hundreds of indirect employment at the commencement of operations, while also boasting a cumulative 20, 000 workforce when it becomes fully operational.
The establishment of the port which was used as a case study on dry port operations in Nigeria by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) in collaboration with KIDP and the German Development Agency (GIZ) drew accolades from industrialists and stakeholders.
Director of the Policy and Advocacy Centre of ACCI, Mr Olawale Rasheed, said the port had the right facility needed to champion the federal government’s drive to develop a chain of inland container dry ports to fast track hinterland trading and reduce cost of doing business.
The port’s General Manager, Rotimi Hassan, also said the port had all the loading and off-loading equipment, trailer parks and a 4,000-square meter capacity warehouse.
He said the state government provided access roads, electricity and water to the port.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE learnt that KIDPL moved about 120 20-Feet Equivalent Units (TEUs) within three months of its operation before the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) halted all activities into the facility due to the rail line construction going in the Iju-Apapa axis in Lagos.
Also, KIDP, despite the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, processed about 68,420 metric tonnes of cargo in 2020.
The port was said to have received close to 3,500 TEUs or 68,420 metric tonnes of cargo early October, 2020, even though it projected 6,000 TEUs for the year.
No support infrastructure
However, experts have said the gap between the expected operation capacity and what KIDP was currently handling was huge, describing the situation as disheartening.
“It is saddening that a project of this magnitude could be contemplated without first putting in place support infrastructure necessary to aid its operations,” Abdulkarim Hussain, a freight forwarder said.
“KIDP is an inland intermodal terminal which should be connected by road or rail to a seaport and operate as a centre for the trans-shipment of cargo to inland destinations.
“What is expected is that all the infrastructure like the rail and roads from the ports in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onne and others are supposed to be functional even before the dry port project commenced,” Hussain pointed out.
He further said, “That KIDP is operating at less than two percent of its monthly output is not a surprise to stakeholders.”
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE reports that although there are concrete link roads and an interconnecting rail line from the port, the Lagos-Kaduna-Kano expressway is in a dilapidated condition, while the Ibadan-Kaduna-Kano rail project is yet to commence. Following the development, the 18 wagons acquired by NRC in 2019 to boost the ICDs by moving cargo from the Apapa sea port to the dry port in Kaduna and other states could not be put to use.
Like the North-South West transport link, all roads linking the North, South East and South South are also in deplorable conditions, while the rail infrastructure project is still at the conception stage, thereby frustrating every attempt at moving cargo from Port Harcourt, Onne, Calabar or Onitsha up North.
Because of the development, cargo laden trucks are forced to stay longer in transit thereby causing delays and increasing the already high cost of doing business.
Experts said Nigeria was losing over 100,000 TEUs of container traffic annually because of the development.
“It will be cheaper for Niger to move its cargo from the Kaduna port, about 250 kilometers, to Maradi or Kano ICD, about 150 kilometers, to Maradi; than from the Cotonou seaport, which is over 1,500 kilometres, to Maradi,” Hussain noted.
Cold shoulder from shipping firms
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE learnt that beyond lack of infrastructure, shipping firms are not giving the much needed cooperation and have failed to recognise KIDP as a port of destination, thereby constricting its operations. The anomaly, it was gathered, is as a result of the absence of a legislation establishing the dry ports.
KIDP and all the other dry ports have to be legally provided for and recognised as either ports of destination for imported cargo or ports of origin for exporting cargo if they must enjoy all privileges required,” Adelowo Daramola, a member of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), noted.
Hussain confirmed that their operation was still within customs bond status of moving cargo on trucks by road, noting that it was expensive and involved several documentations with various customs units for processing/clearance, coupled with other agencies clearances before leaving the ports of discharge.
However, despite the many challenges, Hussain said he was optimistic that KIDP’s activities would thrive if northern state governors rallied support to drive its operations.
21st CENTURY CHRONICLE further reports that among the dry ports, six are supposed to be sited in the North.
Hussain, therefore, said northern state governments, legislators and businessmen should take advantage of the opportunities the gesture provided and mobilise to ensure that KIDP and the other dry ports attained their full potentials.
