Kaduna Dry Port Lies Idle As Insecurity, Flooding Halt Rail Cargoes From Lagos

The Kaduna Inland Dry Port successful Kaduna State is operating acold beneath its installed capableness owed to the suspension of obstruction services from the Lagos seaports, pursuing persistent insecurity and caller flooding that damaged parts of the obstruction way on the corridor.

Inaugurated by the precocious erstwhile President Muhammadu Buhari successful 2018, the Kaduna Dry Port was designed to service arsenic a hub for cargo handling and clearance successful Northern Nigeria, reducing congestion astatine the Lagos ports and easing commercialized for importers successful the hinterland.

However, LEADERSHIP gathered that for respective years, trains person been incapable to determination cargoes from Apapa Port successful Lagos to the installation due to the fact that of predominant bandit attacks successful Niger State and flooding that washed distant sections of the narrow-gauge way astatine Mokwa.

As a result, each cargoes destined for the adust larboard are present moved by road, which improvement stakeholders picture arsenic costly and contrary to the nonsubjective of establishing inland adust ports crossed the country.
Speaking astatine the 2025 Nigeria Transport Sector Summit organised by the Transport Correspondents Association of Nigeria (TCAN) successful Lagos, the managing manager of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), Engr. Kayode Opeifa confirmed that insecurity had forced the corp to suspend cargo question to Kaduna by rail.

“Due to insecurity successful Niger State, the NRC is incapable to determination cargoes by obstruction to Kaduna Dry Port,” Opeifa said. “However, the governors of Niger and Kaduna states are moving vigorously to code the challenge,” helium said.

A elder unit subordinate of the Kaduna Dry Port, who spoke to LEADERSHIP connected information of anonymity, said successful summation to insecurity, the caller flooding successful Niger State besides washed disconnected a information of the obstruction track, efficaciously disconnecting the larboard from the nationalist obstruction network.

“Not lone is insecurity affecting the proscription of cargoes from Lagos Port to Kaduna Dry Port, but besides the flood that washed distant portion of the obstruction line,” the root explained. “We expect the NRC to repair the damaged conception truthful that erstwhile information improves, importers tin determination their cargoes to the inland larboard by train.”

With bid operations grounded, the adust larboard relies solely connected trucks for cargo movement, an enactment logistic operators picture arsenic expensive, slow, and unsustainable.

Stakeholders fearfulness prolonged inactivity could discourage importers from utilizing the facility, undermining the national government’s program to beforehand inland adust ports arsenic determination commercialized and improvement engines.
Despite the challenges, the NRC and the affected authorities governments person committed to restoring obstruction operations erstwhile the information concern stabilises and the damaged tracks are fixed.