BY OSCARLINE ONWUEMENYI
THE Federal Government’s plan to develop Inland Container Depots, ICDs, across the six geopolitical zones of the country appear to be underway with motions already set in place to gazette the Inland operated by Containers Nigeria Limited, ICNL, in Kaduna.

Meanwhile, the management of ICNL, a subsidiary of Chrome Group, has restated its commitment, working with partners across the world, to establish the first world_class Inland Container Depot in the country.

Speaking after a tour of the ICNL facilities in Kaduna, the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, noted that a formal gazzetting and declaration is expected in the coming weeks, adding that he was impressed by the level of work done by the company towards making the project a reality.

He said, “Today, we came to visit the ICNL to assess their readiness to take off as an Inland Container Depot. Our commitment as a government in developing ICDs across the country remains unshaken and it is my hope that with the level of work and progress I see here, the ICNL in Kaduna can jump-start and kick-off as the first ICD to operate in the country.”

He added that, “The Federal government has made clear its determination to create ICDs in different parts of the country in order to decongest the ports in Lagos, and if this is where we would start, we are going to do everything possible to ensure this project is realized.”

According to Suleiman, the movement of goods across the country has been hampered by poor transport infrastructure, including an efficient rail and inland waterways system.

He said, “There is an urgent need to begin to divest the haulage and movement of freight from the roads to the rails and through the inland waterways. Therefore, government’s efforts are directed towards ensuring that this is achieved in order to fast_forward economic development.”

He stressed that the creation of the Inland Container Depot in Kaduna and other parts of the country would greatly eliminate the worsening case of congestion at the Tin Can and Apapa ports in Lagos.

“The over_congestion has become a menace especially to those working in Tin Can Island and Apapa areas of Lagos. The ICD would help to redirect some of the goods that are being brought through these ports, besides reviving the economies of the cities and creating other downstream industries where these dry ports are located.

“I believe that the people of Kaduna and the entire Northern Nigeria would benefit immensely from the citing of the dry port here and in other parts of the region,” the Minister observed.

The Minister further announced that the first phase of the rail modernization project from Lagos to Jebba, Minna State, handled by the Chinese company, CCECC, has been 100 percent completed, while substantial work has been carried out on the second phase from Jebba to Kano State.

“We are confident that when the rail project is completed, it will further add impetus to our drive to decongest the ports and reduce the burden on our roads. It is therefore a good sign that this ICD is taking shape at about the same time as our effort to improve the movement of goods and humans using rail transport,” Suleiman added.

Also speaking to correspondents during the tour, the Chairman of Chrome Group, Chief Emeka Offor, noted that the ICD, apart from bringing port services closer to the hinterland customers at Kaduna and neigbouring states, as well as land-locked neigbouring countries, it will serve to reduce congestion at the seaports, improve transportation infrastructure, facilitate increased trade and economic activities in the hinterland.

“This project would doubtlessly also revitalize the once strong agricultural export activities from the Northern part of the country, and improve the economy of the region through the acquisition of foreign exchange,” he added.

Offor further stressed that the success of the ICD in Kaduna would depend on the “functionality of the Nigeria Rail transport system, and a definitive legal status of the Kaduna ICD as a port of origination and final destination by the Federal government.”