By Godwin Oritse

African Ship Owners Association ASOA has concluded plans to carry an audit on all cargoes that are brought into the continent with a view to getting African participate in carriage of their own consignments.

File photo: The e-waste-laden ship at the Tin-Can Port Lagos.

In an exclusive interview with Vanguard Lagos , Secretary General of the African Ship Owners Association ASOA UASC, Mrs. Funmi Folorunsho said that the ship owners want to create a data base of cargo movement so as to a proper plan for the carriage of these cargoes when they get into Africa.

Folorunsho who disclosed this at the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping (NCS) members’ Evening said that the ship owners are very particular with trade coming into Africa and within the continent.

She explained that the move also geared towards getting the details of any vessel belonging to an African and see how these vessels can be engaged in constant trading.

The group’s scribe also disclosed that the African Union through its Transport Charter mandated maritime operators in African to carry out the exercise.

She said “Africa must have a cargo audit in the sense that where are these cargoes coming from, at what volume, from which part of the world and what type of cargo.

“We need to know these things so that at the end of the day, we will able know what trade patterns are in Africa so that we can plan and make a case for ship owners in Africa.

“If a ship owner acquires two reefer vessels, you can actually have cargo between Nigeria and Angola on a constant basis.

“But until we all come together and say this is what we have to offer in our country and see what the other countries have to offer, the foreign ship owners will short changing Africans”.

The Conference of Heads of African Maritime Administrations, Ship Registrars Association of Africa and the Association of African Ship-Owners will used to galvanize effort toward the project.

The conference which is scheduled to hold in Lagos will be attended by over forty African countries.

This year’s conference, will be hosted by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), as it will be used to review implementation of

the resolutions at the 2013 Conference and consolidate our efforts towards the African Maritime Vision.