The Nigeria Shippers Council (NSC) has assured the Kaduna Dry Inland Port of support for optimal productivity.
Pius Akutah, Executive Secretary of the council, made this known on a familiarisation visit to the Kaduna Inland Dry Port on Monday.
According to him, the visit was necessary to encourage and familiarise with the operators of the inland port as one of the legacy ports in Nigeria.
He said the port was not operating optimally due to the challenges of legal regimes of liability laws which were pending before the National Assembly that needed to be fast-tracked.
Akutah said the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy has directed the council to seek ways of ensuring that port infrastructures achieve their optimal goals.
He said, ” We as regulators are here to listen to the port’s challenges and see where we could tackle the issues for optimal productivity for the benefit of Nigerians.”
Bala Saleh, Director, Legal Services, said the absence of the bill of liability has been responsible for the delay in delivering goods to the Inland Dry Ports (IDP’s).
He said the bill, which is on its second reading seeks to cover who takes responsibility for damaged or loss of goods transported to the IDPs
He called on the Kaduna port to invest massively on the publicity of its activities to boost business prospects.
Earlier, Omotayo Dada, Managing Director of the port, appreciated the council’s support towards ensuring optimal productivity of the port.
He said, ” the port has capacity to do more than it is operating on, but with this visit and support from the shippers council we are ready for business.”
Dada said that the goal of the port was to relieve congestion by bringing shipping and port services to the doorsteps of importers and exporters, thereby catalysing smoother trade operations.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NSC’s team was led to a facility tour of the port.(NAN
