The National President, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), Mr. Lucky Amiwero has called on the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to as a matter of urgency commence the process that will lead to establishment of National Dry Port for economic development of the northern states in Nigeria.
In a letter addressed to the Managing Director of NPA, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero and copied to President Muhammadu Buhari and two others, Amiwero observed that the land locked states of the north faced the challenge of physical isolation related barriers from the seaports and high cost of trading with the rest of the world which according to him had greatly affected the development of domestic and regional markets.
He pointed out that most of the states in the north were entirely or almost enclosed by land thus entailing that they had no shoreline on open seas or fresh water bodies thereby making trade more difficult and costly because of the access of most foreign markets through the states.
Amiwero who is also the Managing Director of the Eyis Resources explained that Dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected to seaports with high capacity transport modes which includes the road, the rail or waterways where customers could leave or pick up their goods in intermodal loading units as if directly from the seaport.
He further added that the performance of a dry port is measured with the quality of access to dry ports and quality of the roads/ rail/ waterways interface.
The NCMDLCA boss recounted the problems encountered by northern shippers to include; cumbersome customs clearance procedures, high inland handling costs, excessive travelling cost, multiplicity of security agencies at seaports and persistent congestion at the seaport.
He went on to list the benefits of developing dry ports as follows; improve productivity and relieving congestion from seaports, possibility to reduce CO2 emission by increasing the efficiency of the road transport and modal shift from road to rail, solve the problem caused by increasing trucks close to the seaport and generate jobs.
Others according to him includes; increase logistics competitiveness of the hinterland regions, offer new business model and open markets with neighbouring countries along the trade corridors, reduce road maintenance, expand the seaport function to the hinterland and achieve “Big Clearance mode and to improve economic development in the hinterland and reduce cost.
“The Presidency should under an expert coordinate the implementation with the various agencies of government and private sector for the implementation of the dry ports in the north. As a trade procedure expert and a member of presidential and inter-Ministerial committee that is involved in repositioning our ports, it is imperative that without the establishment of national dry ports supervised by the National Government under the Presidency, the growth rate of the north being a land locked state will be very slow.
“It has been observed that economic growth and trade has traditionally been linked with development of seaports, as the trade grows, the port becomes a centre of attraction for factors of production as well as distribution associated services.
A closer examination of regional growth reveals that coastal areas enjoy higher growth rate while development lags behind in the hinterland due to high cost of accessing markets and inadequate connectivity”, he added.
Amiwero maintained that in order to solve this problem, the development of dry ports in the hinterland locations and integrated multimodal transport system will provide access to regional and global markets adding that a dry port must fit into a complex system where the necessary supporting infrastructure are in place, maintenance is assured and the regulatory and institutional systems are properly designed to optimize the involvement of both the public and private sector.
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