Most of what Abuja imports lands in Lagos, roughly 750 km away, and then sits in a port queue before the long drive north. TRÏNŪ Bonded Warehouse, a subsidiary of Sirlyon Limited, is betting that a good share of that waiting can happen closer to home. The company has commissioned a customs-licensed facility in Kuje, Abuja, that can hold about 700 containers at any one time, and it says the site will support more than 5,000 direct and indirect jobs within five years.
The model is simple. Cargo moves inland under Customs bond, is stored and processed in Kuje, and duty is paid only when the goods are released. For an importer, that means less time paying for storage at congested seaports and less cash tied up in duty before the goods are actually needed. The facility also offers clearing support, cargo handling and consolidation, and office space for Customs and other agencies on site.
How big is 700 containers?
Small, in national terms, and that is fine. Nigerian ports handled more than 2.1 million TEUs in 2025, up 25.7%, and total cargo throughput rose 24.8% to 129.3 million tonnes, according to the Nigerian Ports Authority. If the Kuje yard turns its full capacity over four to eight times a year, it would move somewhere between 2,800 and 5,600 containers annually. Even at the top end, that is well under 1% of national container traffic.
But the pitch is not about volume. It is about cost. The Sea Empowerment and Research Centre estimated this year that logistics inefficiencies add 20% to 30% to cargo costs in Nigeria. A northern business that can shave even part of that off by clearing goods in Abuja rather than Apapa has a real reason to switch.
"You store, process and clear your cargo closer to its destination," said chief executive Bilal Ajijola.
The open questions
The company has not disclosed how much it invested, how large the site is, or what it charges. The 5,000 jobs figure is its own projection and leans heavily on indirect work in trucking, clearing and security, which is harder to count. And the facility only works if the inland leg is reliable: a bonded warehouse is only as good as the road or rail that feeds it.
TRÏNŪ has put a real piece of port infrastructure in the capital; the test is whether northern importers trust the 750 km bonded journey enough to fill 700 slots, and whether the promised jobs show up in numbers anyone can check.
Figures are as reported at the time of writing. STATART news is written by Frank Brother (Markets), Christina Amgbari (Insights) and Ebipadei Joseph (Lifestyle), and checked before publication.