The West Africa Road Transport Union (WARTU) has decried lack of rail connectivity to the seaports as bane to cargo diversion to neighbouring countries of the sub region.
WARTU also described Lome Port in Togo as the most organised seaport in transhipment of consignments in the sub region , saying availability of logistics infrastructure put in place by the authorities paved the way for thriving businesses within the international frontiers.
Public Relations Officer, WARTU, Alhaji Nasiru Salami, who disclosed this on Monday in a statement made available to our correspondent, urged Nigerian government to ensure adequate rail connectivity to all new and old ports to encourage seamless movement of cargoes .
Salami maintained that Nigerian seaports may continue to loss it hub status if adequate infrastructure are not taken seriously to improve port efficiency and productivity, adding other competitive ports in the sub region are technological driven to create wealth for their respective nations.
“If the issue of railway connectivity is not resolved, Nigeria goods will continue to be diverted to other ports and shippers can not be responsible for lack of Infrastructure to connect Lagos ports through railway.
“The reason why Lomé (Togo) port is the number one transhpement port in west Africa today is because the Lome port has following, proper road network, trailer park, transit distribution center which can contain more than 2000 trucks.
He added that Customs officials from Burkina Faso has two transhipment centers to distribute cargo to various destination in the sub region.
According to him, Togo has two important borders to connect Mali and Burkina Faso and Lakandji corridors through Lome Dapaong Cinkansi or Lomé Lomé Dapangou Pognon Koupenga Nadiagou Fada , adding that the port also have connectivity between Niger Republic, Mali, Burkina faso and other neighboring countries through
1-Lome, Kara, Cinkansi Koupéla, Ouagadougou, Mopti, Gao, Toubouctou.
Others include -Lome, Cinkansi, Koupéla, Fada, Kanchari, Niamey, Goa, Toubouctou.
Lome, Dapaong, Pognon, Nadiagou, Fada, Kanchari, Niamey, Dosso, Koni, Ilela, Sokoto or Koni Maradi Kasitna, Kano, or Maradi, Zender, Damaturu, Maiduguri.
Lome, Cinkansi Ouagadougou, Bobo, Bamako
and Lome Aflao, Tema, Accra, Takouradi, Abidjan, Yamousokro, Danani, Monrovia.
By Roland Ekama
