Kaduna Inland Dry Port Revisited: A Look At The Activities Of Nigeria’s First Dry Port

Ever since the Kaduna Dry Port has been commissioned for use since May 2019, very little has been heard of this port. In May, it was reported that the minister of transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, the Kaduna State gov., Mallam Nasir El-Rufai among other dignitaries from the Nigerian Shippers Council were on ground for the official take-off of this port.

According to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi says the Kaduna Dry Port will greatly provide the needed stimulus for massive economic growth in Kaduna state and the country at large.

The minister explained that the dry port was also to address the problems of inadequate access to seaports, remove frequent congestion which resulted in the loss of cargo in transit, carnage and accident on the land mode.

He added that the inland ports “not only reduce transport costs but also bring shipping to the doorsteps of shippers.”

Ever since the kick-off of this place, our findings reveal that little activities are taking place in this port as people are still bent on using the Lagos port which is already congested at the moment. In August, the Nigeria Shipper Council boss has to appeal to shippers to patronize the Kaduna Inland Dry Port and not leave it to lay fallow, this is because the port has suffered low patronage from shippers across the country except for agro products shippers.

For the records, a dry port is everything a port has excluding the sea. But what it really means is importers & exporters in the catchment area(in this case Northen Nigeria) can do all their goods clearing and processing right there at the Port in Kaduna. This saves the hassles of travelling to Lagos and thereby causing pains and traffic to the people.

Kaduna Inland Dry Port Limited was commissioned by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 2017 to operate as a port of origin and destination. The company provides port-related services to the northern shippers and positioned to receive import consignment direct from various ports of loading abroad and serve as a platform to forward export goods from the port of origin (KIDP) to various destinations abroad
AutoReportNG decided to do a review of how this port actually looks like, ever since the place was commissioned and the groundbreaking ceremony inaugurated, Nigerians don’t know what this place looks like, the interior, the amenities in place and so many other questions.