Work on the Kaduna Dry Port is nearing completion as most of the essential facilities are either fully completed or are close to being ready for commissioning.
According to representative of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council in Kaduna and the officer designated to monitor progress of work on the Inland container depot, now rechristened as dry port; Mr Bala Adamu, anyone who is in doubt about the extent of work done so far should come for an on-the-spot assessment.
After a visit to the facility last week, an obviously elated Adamu posted vivid pictures of extent of work on the facilities on Facebook and challenged any ‘doubting Thomas’ to come and see.
Reacting to a response by one Ibrahim to the posts, Adamu challenged him: “Are you doubting Ibrahim? Probably we need Doubting Thomases like you to come and verify our claims!” The Shippers Council official who was posted to Kaduna a few months ago added that he took to Facebook to update progress of work on the Kaduna Dry Port to encourage those who are interested to take advantage of the facilities.
“The very essence of my posts all this while on this project is to encourage and update critical stakeholders, especially in Kaduna and environ about the progress of work done so far, so that they can take full advantage of the facility”, he added.
Giving specific details, he disclosed that: “The access road fully completed, Trailer pack /Drivers conveniences fully completed, Admin block fully completed, Exports/Imports/Physical Examination warehouses fully completed, Stacking areas, etc fully completed”.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Nigerian Shippers’ Council recently exempted the Kaduna Dry port from the concessionaires that were given a 2017 deadline to kick-start operations on their site or get sacked.
At a recent meeting with all the dry port concessionaires, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Shippers' Council; Mr Hassan Bello had read the riot act, threatening that by the end of 2017, any investor that failed to record appreciable improvement in its facility will be sacked.
Shipping Position Daily investigations further confirmed that the ICNL had commenced operations on the site since 2011, few years after the agreement was reached with the Federal Government on the project.
But, at a meeting with the concessionaires recently in Lagos, Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Shippers Council; Mr Hassan Bello commended facilitators of the Kaduna Dry Port for the level of development on their facilities.
He expressed satisfaction with the structures and development so far put in place, which according to him, are excellent.
"As for Kaduna, we have already seen operations there and we at the NSC have fashioned out the regulatory framework of Kaduna Dry port; we are talking about the railway corporation to see how we can help Kaduna because it has attained a certain level", Bello stated.
"In Kaduna Dry Port, we have seen some significant development and we are satisfied with it"
The facility is billed to commence operations in 2017.
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