Prince Olayiwola Shittu (President, ANLCA)
Under multimodal transport system, Inland Container Terminals are necessary, you also know that presently the government is tied up because there is paucity of funds, these are things that should have been done before the price of crude oil started dropping, but if government is starting from Kaduna now, I know it will help to decongest the ports in Apapa, so that people up North will have opportunity of getting their goods on time. The revival of the rail system is also important, government has already promised that. But, I cannot speak for government on why they have not done the others, you would have thought that transferring containers from Lagos to Kaduna, some of them will be damaged due to bad roads, but a major question that may serve as a real challenge is; who pays for the cost of transfer of the containers from the seaports to the Kaduna destination?
Comrade Peter Ojelatan (Water Transporter)
It is a good development because it will decongest the port in Lagos state, but what about the others? Why are they not functioning? The problem with us in Nigeria is that we usually have a robust policy, but when it comes to implementation, this is where the problem lies. All the ICDs are supposed to come up and be put into use. If you look at the petroleum depots in Lagos, you see all of them concentrated in Apapa; meanwhile we can divert the activity to other parts of the country in order to ease the pressure in Lagos. I believe the investors in the ICD would have done feasibility study into where they are investing their money, government on its own part has the responsibility of ensuring that they look at security, availability of materials, accessibility and good roads leading to the undeveloped ICDs, no investor would put his money where he would not get returns.
Francis Omotosho (ANLCA Member)
The first ICD coming up in Nigeria is a good thing, but the major thing is that the required facilities and infrastructure must be put in place, so that it would not be a waste of time and money. The railway is the most critical mode of transportation to make the ICD to work, without the railway system to facilitate movement of containers from the seaports to the ICD, definitely we are just joking, because presently, the road condition is nothing to write home about, containers are falling constantly on the roads, out of 200 containers you will have 20 containers fall or missing and once we begin to have shortfalls, it would not be successful, building an ICD is not a bid deal once you have the land and the equipment, but the real lifeline of an ICD is the railway.
Femi Olabanji (Chairman, Lillypond Terminal, ANLCA)
Kaduna is part of Nigeria, and if an ICD is built there it would help people to receive their goods faster, Apapa is not a port that containers should be block stacked, it is supposed to be a transit port, containers are supposed to be transferred to the bonded terminals so that there would be a space for more containers, the demurrage would also be reduced for the importers, but if containers are held at the seaports, it is the end users that will bear the brunt, so the ICD in Kaduna would favour the people in that area greatly. But if the ICD is not used as it is supposed to, it would even cost more money to maintain it, but I believe it is part of development and nobody should kill that idea, it will make the shipping of cargoes to Kaduna cheaper and faster.
Temitope Babalola (ICNL)
It’s a good development in the country and as such will create employment for the youths, it will boost the nation’s economy because the dry port will serve as port of origin for those who are in to export and it will make exportation of home made goods easier. The dry port will also save importers of the stress of coming down to Lagos to clear their goods due to the fact that it’s also a port of destination, therefore importers don’t have to come down to Lagos before they clear their consignments and at the same time reduce cost as there will be no need to book for hotel, pay for flight, face Lagos traffic, etc. I am also happy that it is happening in my life time and from my company where I work that; is Inland Containers Nigeria Ltd.
Tunji Obagbo (POTEMAN)
First, let me use this medium to thank the federal government for taking a bold step for the ICD initiative which started in 2006 across the six geo political zones of the country. Such project takes a lot of process which involves legal framework and others. The Kaduna Inland Dry Port has gone beyond those stages and we are happy that it’s about to take-off. It’s an origin and destination ports that will meet the yearnings of both import and export in the northern part of the country, but we also want to the government to put in place measures to ensure that other ICDs earmarked for similar purposes takes-off as well. The Kaduna Inland Dry Port will help in so many ways and people from the state will benefit from it, because of job opportunity for the youth, the maritime sector will also benefit from the project.
Eniola Odulaja (stakeholder)
The dry port in Kaduna state has so many benefits to the country and sector at large considering the commencement of the ICD. We will also appeal to the government to do same to other ICDs that are yet to meet the requirements of the Kaduna Inland Dry Port, because it will be better for the other ICDs to also come on stream to give room for competition. However, Kaduna Inland Dry Port should take the lead to encourage import and export to the hinterland. We can only advise government to put in place measures for rail tracks to be connect to the dry port in Kaduna, because it will bring about effective and efficient ways of doing business in the country.
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