If the words of the Acting Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Mr Hassan Bello, are anything to go by, six proposed dry ports across the country may soon become functional.
The proposed dry ports, otherwise known as inland container depots (ICDs) and container freight stations (CFSs), are located in Ibadan, Oyo State; Kano, Kano State; Isiala Ngwa, Abia State; Jos, Plateau State; Funtua, Katsina State; and Maiduguri, Borno State.
Making the pledge about the envisaged prompt take-off of these facilities, after long years of delays, Bello said that dry ports were created to solve the perennial problem of ports congestion.
The dry ports, according to him, were created to also bring shipping services to the doorsteps of shippers, while serving as consolidated points for exports.
Bello explained that the dry ports were being driven by public private partnership (PPP) model, noting that government had been facing the teething problem of appropriate legal framework for the dry ports project to take off.
The NSC boss opined that the dry ports would be more effective with effective rail service component.
Noting that the Federal Ministry of Transport recently inaugurated a committee to examine the challenges facing the take-off of the dry ports, he said that these facilities would soon be declared as ports of destination and centres of exports.
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