Tony Iju Nwabunike, the national president of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), has said that the Kaduna inland dry port is currently yarning for patronage because importers are yet to understand the principles of the dry port operation.
Nwabunike, who said this recently at the roundtable organised by the Maritime Reporters Association of Nigeria (MARAN), noted that Through Bill of Lading (TBL) had been source of problems on low patronage of Kaduna dry port.
He stated that the Kaduna inland dry port was witnessing low patronage because shipping lines that were supposed to issue TBL were not doing that, adding that importers wanted to import and have the final destination of their goods and services at the dry port without going to Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Warri or Calabar to pick their goods.
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“Importers can’t pick their good at Kaduna without a Through Bill of Lading that dedicates the goods to Kaduna. Now, the question is this, why is the TBL not given to importers?” he questioned.
Nwabunike pointed out logistics as another major problem to full utilisation of the port due to lack of capacity on the part of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) to take goods to the dry port.
He said that the Inland Containers Nigeria Limited (ICNL), operator of Kaduna Port, wants to enter into partnership with a very big logistics company to provide trucking services by evacuating cargoes from the Lagos ports to Kaduna port at a particular price.
While identifying lack of sensitisation of the stakeholders as another reason the dry port was witnessing low patronage, he assured that the management of the dry port had commenced action in this regard.
According to him, Kaduna is less than 500 kilometers to Niger Republic and almost 2,000 kilometers from Cotonou but Niger importers prefer to use Cotonou because, Benin does not ask them for duty
“We went to Niger Republic two times within one month to sensitise them that they can take delivery of their goods under transit cargo. We ask them to import through Nigeria, Kaduna precisely,” he added.
