Tinubu commissions Funtua Inland dry port in Katsina state
Kunle Sanni
President Bola Tinubu on Thursday commissioned the Funtua Inland Dry Port (FIDP) in Katsina State, northwest Nigeria.
The Funtua Inland Dry Port (FIDP) is a project of the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Nigeria Shippers’ Council.
It was also funded through the public private partnership arrangement developed and operated by Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas Company Limited (EMOG).
According to reports, EMOG is a major industry player with a decade of experience in terminal management as well as providing shipping, maritime and logistics services. The company is also the owner and operator of EMOG Bonded Terminal located in Ijora, Lagos – Nigeria.
At the launch, the President was represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume alongside Katsina State Governor as the special guest and host of the occasion.
About the project
The objective of FIDP is to provide efficient, reliable and safe cargo handling, inspection, storage and clearance services for the Northern Market. The services offered by FIDP include;
-Handling abd Storage of imported goods
-Stripping and stuffing
-Warehousing
-Inspection and Clearance of Cargo
-Cargo Consolidation
-Freight Forwarding
The FIDP was designed to handle 10,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) also known as containers and about 60,000 Metric Tonnes of Cargo as well aa create about 23,000 direct and indirect job opportunities for Nigerians.
About Dry Ports Nationwide:
The development of Inland Dry Ports across the country was an initiative of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council. The Inland Dry Ports (IDPs) are being promoted and facilitated on the basis of Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement.
The IDP being an equivalent of a sea port located in the hinterland receives containers by rail or road from the seaport for examination and clearance by customs and other authorised Agencies. It has all the loading and off-loading equipment needed to handle containers.
Typically, an IDP brings shipping services to the door step of shippers, assists in decongesting the seaports and make them more user friendly and provides the impetus to revive and modernise the railway as primary mode for long distance haulage. Above all, it helps to reduce the over-all costs of cargo to hinterland locations as well as to landlocked countries.
The federal executive council had granted approval for the establishment of the Inland Dry Ports in March 2006 at six locations across the country namely Isiala- Ngwa- Abia State; Erunmu Ibadan – Oyo State; Heipang Jos – Plateau State; Funtua- Katsina State; Maiduguri – Borno State and Dala, Kano State. State governments in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Borno, Plateau and Oyo made thousands of hectres of land available to the federal government but poor planning and a lack of coordination between the ministry of transport, successive state governments and relevant agencies have made the ports inoperable.
However, Kaduna Inland Dry Port Limited, which was not originally part of the six approved in 2006, was commissioned by the federal government in 2018 as the first port of origin for export and port of destination for import for hinterland and landlocked neighbouring countries with no sea ports like Niger Republic, Chad, among others. This was clearly achieved through commitment and dedication of Malam Nasiru Elrufai. The Kano IDP was also commissioned by President Buhari in 2022.
Nigerian has collective capacity of 165,000 TEUs from the Seven (7) Inland Dry Ports across the country. The IDPs are meant to create tens of thousands of jobs for Nigeria and facilitate economic growth for landlocked locations in the Nigeria and neighboring countries.
