Foreign shipping firms yet to recognise KIDP as port of destination—Raimi
Though the Federal Government recently flagged off rail operation for cargo delivery from Lagos ports to the Kaduna Inland Dry Port (KIDP), Manager of complex, Mr Rotimi Raimi, have decried that the major target of the entire arrangement will remain useless pending when foreign shippers will recognise KIDP as port of destination.
He revealed that prospective customers, who had wished to route their cargoes via KIDP are finding it hard to convince their shipping companies that the Dry Port is functional.
His said many shipping companies are yet to see the rail scheme as a boost for moving cargoes to Kaduna as they complain of bad roads from Lagos-Kaduna, and excess price variation amongst haulage firms.
Raimi, who argued that shipping companies has the responsibility to move the containers from the port of loading to port of destination, and hand over the containers to the customs, who then hand it over to the port managers, decried that “We then store and hand it over to the business owners but that is not playing out now.”
He noted that the first step is for shipping companies to incorporate the KIDP into their system, such that when importers demand that their goods be delivered to Kaduna, they would oblige.
Raimi noted that containers landing at the Lagos seaport incur demurrage, while in Kaduna there would be none, as goods can be easily cleared at the dry port than at seaports.
He highlighted the merits of rail haulage, saying whereas the cost of moving containers by road from Lagos to Kaduna is not stable and could cost between N800,000 and N1million, use of rail could halve the cost to as low as between N450,000 and N500,000.
Statistics on the KIDP performance since takeoff in January last year showed that it moves an average of 200 containers monthly with hopes that the newly introduced rail system could double the traffic.
