LAGOS – The Nigerian Shippers’ Council says it is carrying out due diligence on ongoing Inland Container Depots (ICDs) projects, otherwise known as dry ports in the country.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
Mr Hassan Bello, the Executive Secretary of the council, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Lagos.
The dry ports are located in Ibadan, Jos, Kano, Isiala-Ngwa (Abia), Maiduguri and Funtua (Katsina).
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“There must be due diligence when a very important economic policy is going to be codified where mistakes of the past are not repeated.
“The Federal Government has been extremely careful. It is better to examine all the implications.
“ Let me assure the concessionaires and let me assure the Nigerian people that soon, these things will be so gazetted.
“This legal frame work is very important we get it right. Already, the draft has been sent to the Presidency and is being studied; due diligence is being carried out and soon we would have that.
“Others are on issue of infrastructure. There are some which are more prepared than others and we are not going to say we are going to have general application.
“If we can get one or two dry ports, then we are on. So, it depends on preparedness and readiness of the concessionaires.
“Certainly, the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, we have to come and negotiate terms or renegotiate the terms after we have gotten the legal frame work right.
“We want these things to be completed as soon as possible because of the impact it will have on Nigeria’s economy.
“And mind you, is not only Nigeria, even our land-locked neighbouring countries have been keying into this and they are anxious for the dry ports to start operating so that they will have their cargo consigned to these ports, as proximate to their countries as possible.’’
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Bello said each of the ICDs was at various stages of preparedness, adding that the council would need to certify the ICDs ready for operations.
The executive secretary said the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), National Immigration Service, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) as well as the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) would be present at the site.
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“We can right now start Ibadan for example. Is very important; cargo could be consigned to that.
“There are still some works to be done in Kano.
“Only middle of last year, the Funtua Dry Port, the foundation laying ceremony was held in Funtua by the state government.
“Each one of them, we cannot have general application. Each one is in a state of preparedness and we have to look at them and see how they are.
“Don’t forget that there are benchmarks, because they are ports. Customs would be there to examine the goods so that you pay excise duties or customs duty.
“All the immigration, other institutions at the ports, NAFDAC, SON, and everything, they would be there at the spot.
“So they are ports by every sense of the word; so they have to be certified as such.’’
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He said that the NSC was also supervising the upgrade of the bonded warehouse in Kaduna to the status of an ICD.
Bello said the council had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Kaduna State Government to provide roads, electricity and water at the site.
He said Gombe was also an on going ICD project, adding that as soon as the council certified that the facilities were of standard, it would be upgraded. (NAN)