Inland Container Depot: A Typical Nigerian White Elephant Project?

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in building a bridge to facilitate trade defined ICD as "a common user facility with public authority status equipped with fixed installation and offering services for landing and temporary storage of export, laden and empty containers Carried Under Customs Control and with Customs and other agencies competent to clear goods for home use, warehousing, and export, temporary storage for onward transit and outright export".

It is an equivalent of a seaport located in the hinterland. It receives container by rail from the seaport for examination and clearance by Nigeria Customs Services. It has all the loading and off-loading equipment needed to handle container and general cargo.

And I line with the supposed benefits inherent in ICDs, the Federal Executive Council approved the commencement of Inland Container Depot (ICD) project at six locations in the country under Build Operate Own and Transfer (BOOT) Agreement on 15th March, 2006 and to give a further vent to its determination to get it off the round, the ICD policy was gazetted through a Federal Republic of Nigeria Official Gazette No.30 volume 94 of 21st May, 2007.
This effectively means that the ICD project has been a the card for about seven years, Nigeria has been battling with getting these facilities that are located in: Isiala-Ngwa (Aba, Abia state ), Ibadan in Oyo state, Kano in Kano state, Jos in Plataea state, Funtua and Maiduguri to take-off.
When completed, the ICDs are expected to bring shipping services to the door step of shippers across the nation, assist in decongesting the seaports and make them more user-friendly and also help to revive and modernize the railway as a primary mode for the long distance haulage of cargo. They are also expected to help in reducing of overall cost of transit cargo to Landlocked neighboring countries.

The proponents of ICDs argue that their benefits include the fact it will come with establishment of customs clearance facility close to production and consumption centers, improved container usage and reduction in the movement of empty containers, improved turn- around time of ships thereby reducing demurrage and avoiding pilferage. They also posited that an ICD comes with issuance of "Through Bill of Lading" by Shipping lines and thereby assuming liability from dispatch to destination ports, lower freight to increase trade flows, optimal use of surface transport and the decongestion of the sea ports and reduction in marine. pollution activities around the seaport.
Added to these are the fact an ICD offers easy and safe access to international shipping facilities in the hinterland giving a boost to inland trading, revitalization of export agriculture leading to multi-product economy and the avoidance of employment opportunities stemming urban-rural drift and increase in revenue to the government as well as rehabilitation of the surface transport system and enhanced usage of containers.
We recall that shortly after the policy and the project became public knowledge, stakeholders from across the country converged on Abuja to brainstorm at a forum that was put together by the project’s superintending agency, that is, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council.
The gathering probably came up in view of the lukewarm attitude of Nigerians to the concept that was first mooted officially by the Shippers Council in 2002.
As a matter of fact, efforts to ease the problems that were being faced by shippers from the Northern part of the country predate the 2002 initiative of the Council. Our findings revealed that while inland container depots have featured in the Northern part of the country since the early 1980s, the Shippers Council involvement became only noticeable in the 1990s.
What all these mean is that the Council is not new to the concept. So, when it came up with a supposedly more conventional and more modern arrangement in the name of dry ports and freight stations, it was expected that it would in no time solve the myriads of problems that were usually faced by importers and exporters, most especially those from the hinterland
But that is how far the supposedly good story of the ICDs and the CFS’ goes. At least sods of at least four different sites have been turned in years, but not much has been achieved beyond the fact that hectares of land have been acquired for the projects.
The closest to good news that we have heard is the ICD in Ibadan who concessionaires have been drumming it into our ears that it will soon be ready for commissioning.
Perhaps we are wrong, but we are of the opinion that the Nigerian Shippers Council is not doing enough to kick-start commencement of business at these depots and stations and we are also concerned about the fact that not many appreciate the relevance of the freight stations and the depots.
Both the ICDs and the CFS have great socio-economic advantages both to the shippers, the residents where they are located and the economic well being of Nigeria, but the apparent long process of their actualisation gives room for concern.
The absence of intermodal transportation system is also another reason to worry about. How workable is an ICD or a CFS without a direct rail linkage from the seaports to the various sites.
One of the criteria that favoured the locations was the presence of traceable rail tracks. But do the seaports enjoy rail linkage, what is the connectivity between Lagos seaports and the proposed ICD in Ibadan, Jos, Kano and others and between Port Harcourt seaport and the ICD at Isiala Ngwa, Jos, Kano and so on.
It is a fact that, for effective implementation and commencement of the ICDs and CFS, there is need to get the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigerian Customs Services (NCS), Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and relevant security agencies should be brought into the picture.
We are worried about the recent appeal from the Oyo State Shippers’ Association (OYSSA) whose President, Dr Ayo Omotoso that the Minister of transport should order commencement of business at Ibadan dry port
Omotosho had appealed for a full-fledged port of destination status for the Ibadan ICD and the revival of the rail system across the state.
This appeal, coming from shippers in a state with supposedly ready ICD is a pointer to the fact that all is not well. While one can assume that the Ibadan depot is ready, the same cannot be said of others.