FG Anticipates 100,000 Jobs From Abia Dry Port
 8th MAY 2007

The Minister of Transportation, Chief Cornelius Adebayo, says the Inland Container Depot (ICD), in Isiala-Ngwa, Abia State, will create up to 100,000 jobs when completed. Adebayo who made this known on Thursday at the ground breaking ceremony of the project, said that the site, a 50,000 TEU (containers) port facility, would serve Aba, Onitsha, Enugu, Ebonyi, Imo, Delta and Benue states.
According to him, a firm, East Gate Inland Container Terminal Ltd., has been given the go ahead to construct the port facility. The government had earlier performed the ground breaking of Kano and Jos ICDs, otherwise known as dry ports. The minister said government expected the Isiala-Ngwa ICD to be ready for business within 30 months.
He said one of the features of the port was that it would receive containerised cargo by rail from Port Harcourt, explaining that the modernisation of the railway into standard gauge had commenced from Lagos to Kano line, while that of Port Harcourt to Jos and to Maiduguri line would soon take off, with Isiala-Ngwa ICD benefiting from this.
“Agriculture and other export cargo will similarly be transported to the seaports also by rail. By and large, Isiala-Ngwa will serve the South-East zone, parts of South-South and North Central zones,’’ the Minister said.
The Minister, who had earlier paid a courtesy visit to the state Governor, Chief Orji Kalu, explained that the purpose of setting up the dry port was to bring goods closer to the owners. In his response, Kalu who was represented by his deputy, Mr Eric Nwakanma, described the ICD as a well-thought out project of the Federal Government and commended the government for laying the foundation while still in office.
Kalu described the South-East as the heart of commerce of Nigeria and Aba being the focal point, and assured the minister that the state government would ensure the smooth take-off as well as the realisation of the aims and objectives of the project.
In his address, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC), Capt.  Adamu Biu, said the idea behind the establishment of the dry port was to save importers the trouble of traveling to the coast for their business transactions. Biu recalled that ICD was first introduced in the country in 1979 when the then Elder Dempster Lines led other members of the United Kingdom West Africa Liner Conference (UKWAL), to team up with the National Insurance Corporation (NICON) to establish an ICD in Kano, under the management of Inland Container Nigeria Ltd (ICNL).

He said another ICD was established in Kaduna but that the two ICDs were plagued with several problems which led to their closure. Biu explained that after their demise, the managers of the Kano/Kaduna ICDs appealed to the federal government to resuscitate them and the matter was referred to the Shippers’ Council, thus marking the beginning of the involvement of the Council in the promotion of ICDs as a component transport infrastructure for hinterland shippers.

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