- The Funtua Inland Dry Port under construction will be completed in May 2018
- The concessionaires to the dry port, Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas Limited, announced the date for the completion
- The Funtua Inland Dry Port, which will be a port of origin and of final destination for goods, is said to be the largest in the country
The chairman of Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas Ltd, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, has stated that the Funtua Inland Dry Port (Inland Container Depot) under construction should be completed in May 2018, Daily Trust reports.
This was disclosed by Alhaji Mutallab at an inspection tour of the project by the executive secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers Council (NSC), Hassan Bello.
NAIJ.com noted that Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas Limited is the concessionaires to the Funtua Inland Dry Port.
READ ALSO: Breaking: Ex-governor Aliyu Akwe-Doma of Nasarawa is dead
Alhaji Mutallab said that the facility and capacity to handle 10,000 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, (TEUs), of containers at the first instance but can be upgraded to higher capacity later.
He added: “The Funtua Inland Dry Port, which is conceived to be the largest in the country, will be a port of origin and of final destination for goods, and so, it would provide the opportunity for the exportation of processed agricultural produce from neigbouring Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi states as well as landlocked countries like Niger and Chad to other countries of the world."
It was learnt that the Funtua Inland Dry Port Project was concessioned to Equatorial Marine Oil and Gas (EMOG) and is based on a tripartite arrangement that involves the federal government (represented by the Nigerian Shippers Council), the Katsina state government and EMOG.
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned Nigeria's first inland dry port located in Kakuri, Kaduna state on Thursday, January 4.
Speaking at the event, the president reiterated his government's intent to diversify the economy and spread the country's wealth to all parts of the nation.
A dry port is an inland intermodal terminal directly connected by road, rail and air to a seaport and operates as a center for trans-shipment of sea cargoes to inland destinations.
A ride on the Abuja-Kaduna railway - on NAIJ.com TV
Source: Naija.ng