Managing Director, Inland Containers Nigerian Limited (ICNL),Mr. Yusuf Ismail in this interview with Roland Ekama talked about the on-going massive construction work at the company’s Kaduna Dry Port facilities, which is expected to commence full operations in 2016. He also spoke about the company’s relationship with the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), among other issues.
What is the current status of the Kaduna Inland Dry Port?
We were supposed to have started operation in the last quarter of 2015, but we had technical challenges and I believe we will overcome it. The commencement date is no longer the last quarter of 2015, because I have to tell you the truth, if I tell you in the next two weeks it will happen and it does not happen, you will not take us serious. The regulatory body which is the Nigerian Shippers’ Council itemised certain things for us to put in place at the dry port which requires engineering development and additional infrastructural development which the board needs to meet and approve. However, the board met and base on the list we have, they approved the commencement of the infrastructural development so the engineers and the contractors will be mobilized to site to carry out the construction of additional infrastructure that the regulatory body asked us to work on. We have a time frame for them to do that and once that is completed, the operation will commence.
Will you say the Nigerian Shippers’ council is an obstacle to the official take-off of Kaduna Dry Port?
No, they are not. They are helping us more because as a regulatory body that have licensed a company and want the company to commence work immediately, but which discovered that the required equipment to make them effective and efficient and will make them start work immediately are not on ground, I don’t think that is a delay. We were operating before as a bonded terminal and not as a dry port and our bonded terminal may not have facilities of a dry port which we must put in place to commence operation as a dry port and that is what we are doing now.
What is the time frame sir?
I will say we phased the project into three and the first phase which we know that if it is completed, we will start operation. I believed the first phase will be from January to March so when that is done, we will start operation and continue the other phases from there.
What is the relationship between ICNL and Nigeria Railway Corporation?
We have a good relationship with them because we are customer to them and they are transporter to us. They give us their locomotive when they have and we make use of it to transport our cargo from the seaport in Apapa to our Kano and Kaduna port.
How effective is NRC in the movement of goods from Lagos to the ICDS?
The Nigeria Railway Corporation does not have enough capacity for the movement of cargoes to meet our demand and when you are in transport business especially the situation we find our self in Nigeria, you have a lot of hiccups which is not limited to the finance of railway itself which was whether they are getting enough funding that will enable them get enough locomotives or wagons to service the public? As far as we are concerned, Nigeria Railway can only do 20% of our
capacity and that is only one ICD, but we all know that government licensed about six more ICDs and if those six ICDS start operation, what will happen to movement of cargoes when these ICDs were premised on the use of railway to meet customers’ needs and become cheaper means of transportation.
How can you describe Nigerian Shippers’ Council as economic regulator?
The Nigerian Shippers’ Council has just been gazetted; recently they have been backed by law to regulate the port. Before, it was a mere pronouncement, but when they get their gazette was when we got ours also. So, they must put their house in other, hold meetings with stakeholders and ask people to submit their problems with terminal operators, bonded terminal operators and dry port operators, then sit on a round table to iron issues out, because by the time they start enforcing their control or regulatory policies, that is when we will know how effective the council is.
What is your view about port charges in Nigeria?
That is a big problem of the regulator at the moment because everything that is of quality goes with price.
What do you think can be done to stop frequent falling of containers?
It is simple, if you want to make a policy; you have to carry all stakeholders along before implementing the law. If Lagos state government had called a meeting of all stakeholders and asked
questions or tell them what they intend to do and how to achieve it, they will tell him the challenges of doing that at night which government was also to blame for their failure to address some
of those issues. Government said trucks should move at night, but there was no provisions for lightening on our roads, trucks move at daytime containers are falling, what about at night when lightening is poor, definitely we will have more accidents. Also, the government should put the roads in order , enforce security and surveillance at night, then government should ask stakeholders
what are the challenges they are facing, you work on those challenges to enable them comply with your law, otherwise we will continue to face these problems if those challenges area are not addressed.
What is your advice for the new minister of transport?
The minister of Transport is an administrator and not an expert so he has a political appointment and we cannot say he is a novice. I can be appointed to be there tomorrow and every section have expert in that area, they are to advise him and his own is to give direction and get things going. I was not born with the business I am doing, but when they want to do anything they come to me and when they cannot defend it, I will not approve it. So, that is why he is an administrator, he has to
give direction. He has his lieutenants and he has the journalists, because I have read about challenges of the sector so they will tell him the problems in the industry and he will sit down with his people. If I call Mr. A that this is the write up from press, how do we solve the problem? he
will come up with the idea, like the present minister after his swearing in, he said he will focus on rail transportation and he will achieve it. I don’t know what he has in mind but I know he has the backing of the president and the president has given him a target and he would have called his colleagues and told them the assignments given to him by the president. This is my assignment here and I must achieve it so how I will do that, tell me so that I will do it.
What is your assessment of port concession?
A lot has changed, because before concession, if we want to move container from the seaport here to our terminal, it took us up to 60 days because Nigeria Ports Authority was managing the terminal and the Nigeria Customs Service are not efficient, but today, containers can be out of the port under 72 hours. The people the government concessioned the ports to have invested in it, they have sanitised the port; invested in equipment, human capital and they have brought in more money. I was there recently and I saw things for myself. The port I used to know was not the port I saw – so efficient when compared to what we used to have before now.
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