ABIA:BOOSTING ECONOMY THROUGH INLAND -KESHI

The sharp and continuous fall of oil prices
globally has forced governments to deploy the
resources and potentials that abound within
their territories to achieve economic growth.
Abia State is keying into this trend, and this
informed the recent inauguration of Inland Dry
Port Project Implementation Committee. The
depot is sited at Avor Ntigha in Isiala Ngwa
North Local Government Area of the state.

According to Governor Okezie
Ikpeazu, this action is aimed at opening access to trade
and commerce in the state. It was also
informed by the state’s desire to develop
avenues that would support inflow of
businesses.

It is indeed cheering news for the people of
Abia State and their South East neighbours
because of the depot’s economic implication. In
2007, the then Minister of Transportation, Chief
Cornelius Adebayo, during the groundbreaking
ceremony of the project, said that the depot
when completed would create 100,000 jobs.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the Abia
Inland Cargo Depot followed that of Kano and
Jos ICDs.

The project, a 50,000 TEU (containers) port
facility, would serve Aba, Onitsha,Enugu,
Ebonyi, Imo, Delta and Benue states. One of the
features of the port was that it would receive
containerised cargo by rail from Port Harcourt
and the federal government had by that time
commenced the modernisation of the railway
into standard gauge from Lagos to Kano line,
while that of Port Harcourt to Jos and to
Maiduguri line was expected to take- off.
Unarguably, Aba is the commercial hub of the
South East and the idea behind the
establishment of the dry port was to save
importers the trouble of traveling to the coast
for their business transactions thereby bring
goods closer to the owners.

Recalled that the Abia Inland Cargo
Depot, among other ICDs, was a product of the
Build Operate and Transfer (BOOT) agreement
the federal government signed with
concessionaires in 2006. The agreement, which
identifies the federal government as the
guarantor and concessionaires as operators,
stipulates that private investors would be
licensed to build Dry ports at designated sites,
operate them for stipulated time and transfer
ownership to the federal government. The
system enables private investors to partner
with the government in providing port facilities.
Other ICDs were sited at Zawachiki village,
Kano State; Eronnu in Egbeda LGA of Oyo
State; Heipang, Barkin Ladi, Plateau; and
Galanbi , Bauchi State.

Fortunately, however, Eastgate Inland Terminal
Limited, the concessionaires of Abia ICD, were
the first among other ICDs to be issued
Certificate of Occupancy by Nigeria Shippers
Council in 2008, and in 2009, the agreement for
the commencement of the physical
development was signed.

Despite assurances by Adebayo during the
groundbreaking ceremony of the project in 2007
that government expected the Abia ICD to be
ready for business within 30 months; the
facility is yet to come on stream. It will waste
of energy and mental resources here arguing
what led to the delay of the facility to take- off,
but the most importantly thing is the pledge by
Governor Okezie Ikpeazu that the state would
deploy maximum support for Nigeria Shippers
Council and the concessionaires, Eastgate
Inland Container Limited towards the realization
of the project.

Our confidence is enforced by Ikpeazu’s
disposition to deploy available infrastructures
and facilities for the economic advancement of
the state. The governor has in several
occasions emphasized the need for the state to
explore other options that could “open up
access, ease trade, and probably help the Abia
people, who are predominantly importers.”

These reasons and other reasons summed up
justify why serious attention should be
accorded the facility as the government had
explained that it has carefully made sure that
those who are going to drive the facility are the
people that possess the required capacity to
attract the needed attention and support that
would facilitate the take-off of the project.
There is a passionate appeal from the governor
to well-meaning individuals who have positive
ideas to contribute such directly to the
government or the committee. “We expect
every person that is patriotic, every person that
has Abia State at heart, to make suggestions to
them directly or to the state government and
we want to encourage all arms of government
to dissolve all differences and make sure that
we give support to this committee, because
their success amounts to our collective
success and it is Abia people that would be the
beneficiaries at the end of the day,” Ikpeazu
said.

Inland Container Depot 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).

Another Inland Container Depot was
established in Kaduna but the two ICDs were
plagued with several problems, which led to
their closure. After their collapse, 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.

Ukegbu is the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to
Governor Ikpeazu on media