The Federal Executive Council rose from this week’s executive meeting on Monday, May 5, 2025 with the announcement of Nigeria First Policy. The announcement made me remember the Buy Nigeria Initiative of the past and what happened to it. Well, I am not delving into this ‘Nigeria First’ initiative yet but to let the federal government know that we are on the look-out for how it will lead by example in the enforcement of this Nigeria first initiative – and how it will use the executive order to stimulate local production, and the government officials not exploring the loophole already announced with the policy.
In the latest Nigeria Poverty and Equity Brief, April 2025 Report of the World Bank, the Poverty By Group table saw 75.5 percent of Nigerians in rural communities as being poor. Of the break down, urban population has 41.3 percent as poor, males at 63.1 percent, females, 63.9 per cent; 0 to 14 years old standing at 72.5 percent poor; 15 to 64 years old at 57.5 percent; 65 and older at 49.5 percent poor; those without education (16+) are 79.5 percent in poverty; primary education (16+) at 61.9 percent; secondary education (16+) at 50.0 percent; while tertiary/post-secondary education group (16+) are at 25.4 percent. The Brief summarises that the key to reversing the depressing numbers are effective Reforms that are capable of protecting the poorest against inflation, and that which can boost livelihoods of all Nigerians through more productive work – as efforts are geared towards reversing these high levels of poverty.
As I was preparing to pen this piece, I became so disturbed when it occurred to me whether it will ever be possible for a state, as a constituent unit, to build its economy successfully without the other constituent units exporting indolence and other social vices into such a newly-built states economy; and, by so doing, truncate such a states economic stimulation efforts. Can governors and their respective states apparatuses deliberately build their economies without a concerted approach from adjoining states? I asked myself again: how is Lagos State coping with the unending influx of people with no economic capacity and skills, and the attendant imported social vices, in its efforts to build an economy bigger than the rest of Nigeria put together? So, is Lagos bearing the brunt of extreme poverty prevalent in other Nigerian states, thus dragging down the state of excellence from achieving its potential in economic growth and per capita development?
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Back to my opening line above and in view of the submission of the just-released April 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, a lone effort by a constituent unit in Nigeria may hardly achieve much, effectively; but that a basket of states need to concertedly address poverty in their domains. This brings me to Oyo State and what the state can safely do with what has already been delivered to it – to turn around its economy and breathe on adjoining states through the Moniya Inland Port.
An inland or dry port is a rail or a barge induced, strategically positioned terminal not far from or linked to a maritime port with inland transport services.
It is the latest phase in the development of port terminals and maritime shipping networks. The importance of a dry port location in Ibadan right from the days of Erunmu dry port framework, its expected strategic role in the LAKAJI corridor development, and now the Moniya dry port cannot be over-emphasised. But the question remains: is Oyo State really ready to seize the dry port opportunity and the potential it offers to transform the economy of the state?
According to Dr. Jean-Paul Rodrigue and Dr. Theo Notteboom in the piece titled, Port Economics, Management and Policy, the complexity of modern freight distribution, the increased focus on intermodal and co-modal transport solutions, and capacity issues appear to be the main drivers behind a renewed focus on hinterland logistics. An inland port has a level of integration with the maritime terminal and supports more efficient access to the inland market for inbound and outbound traffic. This implies an array of related logistical activities linked with the terminal, such as distribution centers, depots for containers and chassis, warehouses, and logistical service providers”. An inland port offers an unlimited value added activities. Such port activities include the fundamental processing of inbound or outbound freight flows. Beside these direct activities with capacity to generate economic activities for people, are also the innumerable indirect services like warehousing, containerization, and direct boost of airport services.
In the same vein, a fully-functional dry port has a regional impacts with great potential for regional market development. For instance in Western Europe, the setting up of inland port terminals, with rail shuttles and barge services give rise to development of logistics zones for goods. Thats why we have, for example, the inland port enabled zones like platformes logistiques in France, the Güterverkehrszentren (GVZ) in Germany, Interporti in Italy, Freight Villages in the UK, Transport Centres in Denmark, and Zonas de Actividades Logisticas (ZAL) in Spain. Though the example mentioned here is inter-country connectivity, the Moniya dry port has the potential to develop the interstate logistic zones in the south west, northern states and south east and south-south activities – all boosting the economic activities of the host state, Oyo.
With the relaunch of the Apapa-Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail for Container Haulage February 2025, by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) and APM Terminals Apapa for container transportation, and touted to mark a major milestone in Nigeria’s logistics sector, it is expected that the Oyo state government will play the frontal role in ensuring that most of the clearing activities move from Apapa to Ibadan as a result of the obvious economic impacts of the dry port activities on the employment generation and business creation revenue generation for the state and the millions of people living in the state.
Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultant
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