By Godfrey Bivbere

The Nigerian Export-Import Bank, NEXIM and the Nigerian Shippers Council, NSC, are collaborating to establish a shipping line for trading within the West and Central Africa sub-region.

The establishment of the trans-regional shipping line was disclosed by the Acting Managing Director of the NEXIM Bank, Mr. Bashir Wali at the just concluded “Transport cost and regional connectivity of African countries.”

Wali, who was represented by his Technical Adviser, Hope Yongo, said that they decided to venture in the regional as a result of high transportation costs and excessive transit time that makes intra-regional trade non-competitive and West African transport and logistics costs one of the highest in the World.

The NEXIM boss also bemoaned the absence of dedicated safe and modern fleet to encourage and facilitate Atlantic Short-Sea Trade along the West and Central African regions as well as inadequate transport infrastructure among member states and non tariff measures that are a barrier to: Increase intra-regional trade; Regional integration; and free movement of persons and services.

He said that the Regional Sealink Consortium is broadly proposing, an integrated maritime/ logistics services–combined transport, warehousing facilities with supporting ancillary services–Container handling and weighing and deepening coastal maritime activities and inland waterways with high prospects of promoting tramp services and open avenues to promote ferry services.

Furthermore, enhancing bulk cargo trade and provision of a dedicated platform for port operationsat Burutu Port to mining activities and Messrs. Marine Services & Supply Co. Ltds of the Regional Sealink Consortium has now confirmed willingness to deploy three ships for the pilot scheme operation of the regional Sealink project upon confirmation of Notice of Readiness (NOR) from Sealink Promotional Co. Ltd.

Yongo further noted that while intra-regional trade in European Union, the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, stood at about 60 percent, 50 percent and 30 percent compared to about 15 percent and 12 percent for African and ECOWAS trade respectively.   He frowned at the growth in intra-ECOWAS trade in the past decade from 4.7 million tons to 13.2 million tones without corresponding increase in transport infrastructure and the low level of African container traffic that stood at less than 1 percent of total world container traffic of over 400 million containers.

He also pointed out that the increase in West African loaded and unloaded dry cargo in million tonnages from 41.4 and 66.2 in 2009 to 53.8 and 73.2 in 2010 respectively while Central Africa rose from 8.5 to 9.2 and 10.9 to 11.4 respectively.

Comparatively, he continued, the ECOWAS and Central African Region has the lowest international score on perception on logistics, based on six key dimensions – efficiency of customs clearance process, quality of trade- and transport-related infrastructure, ease of arranging competitively priced shipments, quality of logistics services, ability to track and trace consignments, and frequency with which shipments reach the consignee within the scheduled time.

The Technical Assistant to the NEXIM bank boss further disclosed that the regional Sealink project is being endorsed and technically supported by the following key institutions; by ECOWAS Commission for Road Shows, by MOWCA with membership in the Sealink Technical Committee, by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council with membership in the Sealink Technical Committee and commissioning of the studies on Sealink feasibility study on Gulf of Guinea – Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome’ & Principe, grant funding provided by the Directorate of Technical Cooperation in Africa / African Development Bank in the sum of US$302,000 and by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and ECOWAS Bank for Investment & Development (EBID) with arrangements for funding /investments.