Kaduna, Kano ICDs lobby landlocked countries for cargo

Harboursandport.com: Lagos ---

Operators of the Inland Container Depots, ICDs in Kaduna and Kano are lobbying neighbouring countries in the West African sub-region to use their facilities for land-lock cargo.

A director of the Kaduna ICD and National President of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents, ANLCA, Tony Iju Nwabunike, said they are marketing the project to countries like Niger Republic, Chad, Sudan etc.

Nwabudike said already Niger has keyed into the project and have started using it, even as he disclosed that shippers in most of the northern states are now shipping through the Kaduna port.

“What am saying is that all the importers in the Northern states are using it and we are advancing more. We want Niger, Chad, Sudan and all the neighbouring countries around the area to begin to use the facility and we are in negotiation.”

Recall that shippers in the Northern part of the country started export of their agricultural produce through the ICD in Kaduna.

The Kaduna Area Officer, of the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, Bala Adamu, had said then that that Hibiscus (used in making local drink known as Zobo); Ginger and Sesame seed are presently being exported through the facility to Egypt and some West African countries.

Adamu said that claims that port operations have not started at the facility is not correct as they received about 20 containers by rail from the port in Lagos recently.

According to Adamu, “Yes, we have received some consignments here heading for Egypt.  Some people exported Hibiscus; you know it is used for making Zobo. And others are sesame seeds and Ginger.

“The task is enormous and you cannot get it right at once considering the fact that this is a new concept and of course people have not yet embraced it,” he noted.