President Muhammadu Buhari will commission Baro River Port in Niger State tomorrow (Saturday).
General Manager, Corporate Affairs of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Tayo Fadile disclosed this in a statement issued on Thursday.
He said the river port project, which was constructed by NIWA trough a Chinese firm, CGCC Global Project Nigeria Limited, at the cost of N6 billion, is equipped with a mobile harbour crane, a transit shed, an administrative block, fire hydrant system, water treatment plant, reach stacker, 100KVA power generating set and three forklifts of various tonnages, among others.
He recalled that the Baro River Port was among those built to support the dredging of the Lower River Niger project adding that the Onitsha River Port has already been rehabilitated, while Oguta and Lokoja River Ports are nearing completion.
According to him, the Baro Port will, aside helping to keep off the road several heavy duty trailers and trucks thereby extending the life span of roads, create at least “two thousand direct jobs and hundreds of thousands indirect jobs”.
“During the colonial era, Baro used to have a thriving river port and a railway line, which were used for evacuation of farm produce and mineral resources.
“It was a trading point between Nigeria and neighbouring countries through the inland waterways transportation mode.
“Here is hope that the old rail lines used in the colonial days will be revived and the road network linking the port is already being upgraded,” he said.