Steve Agbota
The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Barrister Hassan Bello, has said that the Federal Government, through the council, would sign the Ibadan Inland Dry Port in August with a facility worth over $500 million.
Bello, who disclosed this in Lagos yesterday during the second Transport Leadership Lecture organised by Kings Communication Limited with the theme: Leadership in a Next Level, said that dry port would take pressure off the two seaports in Apapa currently facing gridlock. According to the NCS boss, the council has started moving cargoes from the port to the Kaduna Inland Dry port through rail on a weekly bases as apart of efforts to solve the problem of Apapa Apapa gridlock. He explained: “We are going to sign the Ibadan dry port in August with $500 million facility, which is going to be modern and we have to make it distinct to remove what is currently happening at the seaport, and we are already winning because we have started receiving cargoes from our competitors.
“Although, we have a challenge of interconnectivity, which is being solved now. This shows that government is poised to make a difference and by the time the infrastructure around Apapa is mitigated, we will see a resemblance of order, but we are already having a short, medium and long term solutions. So as we struggle to see that all these things are done, I will call for sincerity because the port is a miasma of various interests. He added that there are challenges mitigating against the ease of doing business at the port.
Bello was, however, optimistic that the challenges are surmountable. “We have to tell the government the truth that there are infrastructural deficits and government has to create a conducive environment because the operating environment is a little bit harsh. We have challenges, a lot of them, but not insurmountable, when I look at the deficit in infrastructure for example and someone said we need N3 trillion to make up for our deficit, that means about N100 billion every year for the next 30 years.