Buhari warns customs against bureaucracy

President Muhammadu Buhari has warned officials of the Nigerian Customs Service against frustrating business at the Inland Dry Port in Kaduna.

Speaking on Thursday, the president said Customs and port officials must make the facilities work and avoid defeating the purpose of the whole exercise.

He said six other ports in Ibadan, Aba, Kano, Jos, Funtua and Maiduguri were in various stages of completion and urged relevant stakeholders to use the facility optimally.

Once completed, he said the dry ports will reduce congestion, traffic gridlock, time spent at sea ports and cost of doing business.

“The development of inland dry port is an important factor in our economic development efforts as ports of origin for exports and ports of destination for imports,” he said.

“The Inland Dry Ports will accelerate the implementation of our economic diversification policy.

“The concept of Inland Dry Port has gained widespread importance with the tremendous changes in international transportation as a result of the container revolution and the introduction of door-to-door delivery of cargo.

“It provides importers and exporters located within the nation’s hinterland, especially industrial and commercial outfits, access to shipping and port services without necessarily visiting the seaports.

“It also enables them to process clearance of their import cargo and take delivery of their raw materials and machinery close to their places of business.

“Furthermore, the Inland Dry Ports will also provide our exporters the much needed facilities to process, package, consolidate and forward their exports to their customers all over the world without having to physically be at the seaports.

“This replicates the port economy in the various centres where the Dry Ports are located inland thereby generating employment and contributing to the ease of doing business.”