Steve Agbota
The Executive Governor of Kano State, Abdulahi Ganduje, at the weekend said the construction of Dala Inland Dry Port will boost the nation’s foreign exchange earnings and grow the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) upon completion.
Ganduje who stated this when he paid a working visit to the headquarters of Nigerian Shippers Council in Apapa Lagos, said his government has so far committed N2.4billion to the Dala Inland Dry Port Project.
According to him, the Inland Dry Port Project will continuously boost the Kano economy in particular and the Nigeria’s in general when completed. He called on the Ministry of Transportation to declare the Dala Inland Dry Port, a port of origin and destination.
“The Kano State Government under my watch, appreciates the economic importance of the Inland Dry Port Project to the socio-economic wellbeing of my people and we are fully committed to facilitating and supporting its actualisation” “We have already provided critical infrastructures required for the project, notably: Construction of standard dual carriage access road to the project site; provision of power and water to the site and other essential support of propagating the project and promoting it both for marketing and obtaining support from appropriate quotas particularly regulatory agencies,” he said.
Upon completion, the governor said the dry port would equally serve neighboring land-locked countries including Niger Republic, Chad, Northern Cameroon and the rest of Sahel Africa up to Mauritania.
Speaking earlier, Executive Secretary of Nigerian Shippers Council, Hassan Bello, appreciated the Kano State Government which according to him has already committed about N2.4 billion on the access road to the terminal which is 50 per cent completed.
He said the Dry Port is expected to grow to as much as 50,000 TEU in three years time, and 80,000TEU in five years, saying the Dry Port, once completed would also be getting 30 billion metric tonnes of cargoes from Lagos to Kano State by rail.