The Return of Evacuation of Cargoes by Rail
In our last article, “Federal Government of Nigeria’s Efforts at Improving the Ease of Doing Business with Nigeria’s Ports”; we stated that restructuring and improving the multi-modal transportation system will indeed help to reduce the gridlock traffic experienced especially at the Lagos Ports (Lagos Ports Complex and Tin-Can Island Port). To reiterate, the introduction of multimodal transportation, especially the rail transportation system will go a long way at improving the evacuation of containers and decongestion of the roads.
In today’s piece, and as the title says there has been a return of evacuation of cargoes by rail. This is a win-win situation for both the freight -forwarders and the Nigerian Government. The return of evacuation of cargoes by rail in Lagos would aid the swift evacuation of cargoes from the ports in Lagos, thereby leading to the decongestion of the ports and would provide an easy gateway for exports.
According to the Director, Regulatory Services; Nigeria Shipper Council, Mrs. Ifeoma Ezedinma, the move was aimed at boosting the nation’s export earnings and allowing export cargoes trapped at various private garages and port corridors access Lagos ports through the road.
Nigeria’s total non-oil export revenue in 2019 was $10.4 billion[1], this is approximately about 3% of Nigeria’s 2019 nominal GDP[2], which facts suggests that there is a huge market for Nigeria through exportation. We are positive that the reintroduction of cargoes by rail will go a long way to improve the economy of the country and improve its trade across countries.
[1] https://nairametrics.com/2020/04/10/revenue-from-nigerias-non-oil-export-was-highest-in-2019/