Shippers expect further lifting of cargo by rail to reduce pressure on roads infrastructure

Nigerian shippers, whose business is constrained by the difficulties in moving import and export cargo in and out of the nation’s seaports, have identified the need for the Federal Government to develop a modern railway system that will improve on the ease of cargo haulage at the nation’s ports.
To them, railway is the best and the fastest way of moving cargo in and out of the ports, especially in the modern world. Therefore, they believed that the Federal Government through Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) needs to show serious commitment to establishing strong and modern rail system that has the capacity to take over 1,000 trucks off the road.
In 2013, the NRC in partnership with APM Terminals Apapa and Inland Containers Nigeria Limited (ICNL) flagged off the re-instatement of container haulage services from Apapa to ICNL depots in Kaduna and Kano on a bi-weekly trainload of 20 containers on each service from Apapa.
Also, the NRC further increased its freight market share with the haulage of petroleum products from the tank farms following the acquisition of 20 fuel tanker wagons.
BusinessDay findings reveal that the existing container haulage by rail, which takes less than 100 containers to the ICNL depot in Kaduna and Kano, is not sufficient to ameliorating the plights of Nigerian shippers due to the fact that the service accommodates less than 5percent of the entire containers that leave Nigerian seaports on monthly basis.
In Nigerian ports today, nothing less than 1,500 containers leave the ports on daily basis and trucks that put pressure on the road infrastructure carry them.
This is why, Hadiza Usman, the new managing director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), pledged her administration’s commitment to ensuring increased movement of cargo by rail from the seaports to the hinterland. This commitment, according to her, is based on the fact that Nigerian importers and exporters are experiencing many encumbrances while taking delivery of their consignments or bringing their export commodities to the ports, largely due to the bad state of roads leading to the nation’s seaports.
Movement of cargo by rail line, the NPA boss believed, would not only help to decongest the port access roads currently being stifled by congestion caused by movement of container carrying trucks and tankers lifting imported refined crude oil from tank farms, but would also help to ease pressure on Nigerian roads.
“The entire system has become dysfunctional such that delivery of empty containers into the port and the evacuation of cargo has become a terrifying experience. There is an urgent need to revive the rail system for the purpose of evacuating both containers and petroleum products especially from Lagos ports that are already congested,” Tony Anakebe, managing director of Gold-Link Investment Ltd, a clearing and forwarding company.
Anakebe, who observed that moving in and out of the ports in Lagos and even in the Southern part of country like Calabar has become a nightmare due to the bad state of roads leading to these ports, also said that Nigerian shippers need a modern rail system to ease movement of cargo at the port.
Anakebe further disclosed that charges by haulage vehicles had increased astronomically because of the long travel time and poor turnaround time resulting from the slow pace of cargo evacuation from the ports. “This is taking toll on the private sector and the entire economy at large owing to the frequent loss and cargo damage caused by fallen of containers on transit.”
Commenting on this, Emeka Akabuogu, a maritime lawyer, who affirmed that it is ideal for Nigeria to intensify movement of containers and refined petroleum products to the designated inland container depots (ICDs) and depots by rail line, emphasised that Nigerian businesses need bulk haulage of cargo by rail as many containers can easily be evacuated from the port by rail with reduced cost for the shipper.