I write to attract consideration to the pressing want to completely operationalise the Baro Inland Port in Niger State, a strategic nationwide infrastructure undertaking with the potential to rework agricultural commerce, scale back transportation prices, create jobs and strengthen Nigeria’s financial integration.
Baro Port represents greater than a facility in Niger State. It is a nationwide financial asset whose strategic significance extends throughout northern Nigeria and the broader nation. Its revival aligns together with your administration’s financial diversification agenda, the event of the blue financial system, meals safety, infrastructure growth and the goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
Yet, a number of years after its commissioning in 2019, the port stays constrained by insufficient highway entry, inadequate dredging and incomplete rail connectivity. This scenario calls for pressing and coordinated federal intervention.
Baro has an extended industrial historical past. Established in 1908, it served as a transportation hyperlink for agricultural produce, livestock and different commodities transferring between northern and southern Nigeria.
The fashionable port was developed to revive that perform via a extra organised inland logistics system. According to the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the power features a 150-metre quay, a 7,000-square-metre cargo stacking yard, a 3,600-square-metre transit shed and cargo-handling gear. These services had been supposed to assist inland cargo distribution and commerce.
The monetary implications of extended underutilisation are important. In August 2025, the Managing Director of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), Bola Oyebamiji, instructed a House of Representatives advert hoc committee that the undertaking had been awarded at ₦3.56 billion, with roughly ₦3.35 billion, representing 94 per cent of the contract sum, already paid.
Despite this expenditure, the port has struggled to function as a result of important supporting infrastructure stays insufficient. The figures underscore the necessity to shield the general public funding already made and stop additional deterioration of the power.
The House committee, chaired by Saidu Musa Abdullahi, expressed concern throughout its 2025 oversight actions that the port might turn into a wasted funding with out pressing rehabilitation of its entry roads and waterways. A report by Premium Times additionally highlighted the poor situation of entry roads, noting {that a} journey anticipated to take about half-hour might take greater than 4 hours.
These aren’t merely infrastructure deficiencies. They are limitations to commerce, employment and financial alternative.
A purposeful Baro Port might strengthen the motion of agricultural produce, livestock, stable minerals and different commodities from Niger State and neighbouring areas to home and worldwide markets.
Aliyu Umar, aliyuumar721@gmail.com
