The Edo Inland Container Depot has the capacity to create more than 15, 000 direct jobs within the first three years of its operations.
Managing Director, Atlantique Marine and Engineering Services (AMES), Mr Charles Akhigbe, operators of the Depot said this in an interview in Abuja.
He said that the first phase of the facility had been completed and was awaiting commissioning.
According to him, the first phase of the project will accommodate 12,000 containers while the second phase will take 8,000.
He said the facility would help in the exportation of agro allied and other non-oil products in the state.
Akhigbe said that the facility would also provide opportunities for businessmen, innovators, entrepreneurs and industrialists.
“We can now transport our goods straight to other parts of the country at a very cheap price.
“The facility is strategically located in Edo State which is on super highway, that is the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) international trade route, with this, businesses do not have to go to Lagos.
“The facility will enable the forwarders and shippers to bring their containers to Benin and from there move to other parts of the country,” he said.
Akhigbe said that the depot which would be a dry port, had been fashioned like a Public, Private Partnership (PPP) project, designed to improve trade and commerce.
He said that the facility would also bring shipping to the doorsteps of industrialists and shippers within the location.
Akhigbe said that the project would boost real estate business, as well as the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by more than 15 per cent.
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