{"id":5613,"date":"2013-06-27T16:25:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-27T16:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disnaija.com\/nigeria-news\/perishable-cargo-terminals-long-overdue\/"},"modified":"2013-06-27T16:25:34","modified_gmt":"2013-06-27T16:25:34","slug":"perishable-cargo-terminals-long-overdue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disnaija.com\/perishable-cargo-terminals-long-overdue\/","title":{"rendered":"Perishable Cargo Terminals Long Overdue"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The announcement last week that thirteen airports in Nigeria have been designated as perishable cargo airports by the Ministry of Aviation and efforts to make the project a reality were underway is commendable.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to policy announcements by Nigerian government officials, the devil is in the details. The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, said the perishable cargo terminals would be located in Abuja, Akure, Calabar, Ilorin, Jalingo, Jos, Kano, Lagos, Makurdi, Minna, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Uyo airports.<\/p>\n

These airports are located near food baskets and would be developed with international standard perishable cargo facilities to enhance their operations.<\/p>\n

FAAN said the development of Economic Free Trade and Export Processing Zones will be targeted alongside cargo airports and agro-allied industrial clusters, based on local opportunities and the state\u2019s competitive and comparative advantage in agriculture production.<\/p>\n

The move is to enable these airports key into the over N250 billion annual air freight export market out of Africa. State governments have therefore been encouraged to partner with the Federal Government to revive smaller airports.<\/p>\n

These are all lofty ideas that need to come to reality as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Countries like Kenya, South Africa, Benin, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Egypt are participating in trading in commodities such as fruits, fresh fish, vegetables and flowers while Nigeria, which produces all these items in abundance, records zero participation.<\/p>\n

The perishable cargo terminals would create the much needed storage infrastructure for perishable goods and would facilitate the evacuation of agricultural produce to domestic markets.<\/p>\n

Nigeria has 22 airports operated by FAAN, four of which are functional international airports and one state owned airport located in Akwa Ibom State.<\/p>\n

We believe that it would be a good start to have perishable cargo terminals at the designated airports. One of the reasons agriculture has taken a back seat in Nigeria is due to poor preservation of agricultural produce. The other is transportation.<\/p>\n

Nigerian farmers work hard yearly only to see their produce wasted either because they cannot preserve their produce or cannot take them to the right markets to sell them. Having perishable cargo terminals will open up Nigeria to other African markets and this will increase productivity as well as boost employment.<\/p>\n

<\/img> <\/img> <\/img> <\/img> <\/div>\n

——————————————————————————————————————————————-
Posted in Nigeria News. <\/a>A DisNaija.Com<\/a> network.<\/p>\n

Source: PM News<\/p>\n

DisNaija.Com<\/b> publishes regular posts on Nigeria News,<\/a> Nigerian Newspapers,<\/a> Online Nigeria Gist.<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Nigeria News<\/a>
\n
\nFollow @Dis_Naija<\/a>
\n