Expert urges women to participate in Shipping

The Business Manager, of Klmpt Harkulson, Mr Edmand Martins, has urged African Women in maritime to participate in the shipping business and create wealth for unemployed youths in the country.
Martins made the plea during the monthly meeting of Women in Maritime Africa (WIMAFRICA), Nigeria Chapter, held in Lagos on Thursday.
According to him, it is important to open the eyes of women to shipping business, to enable them to strive to own, manage and run ships.
He said that women should look beyond participating in the clearing and forwarding business but to also participate in the bigger part of International trade in the maritime business.
Martins noted that there was not enough coastal trade in the West and Central African coastline.
He said that there were a lot of opportunities in the coastal trade for women, as well as in the off-dock terminals.
“A tanker vessel is a major vessel designed to transport liquid and gas cargo, which are very large in size, design and function.
“There are two types of shipping trade, which are Liner and Tramp trade. Tramp trade operates like private cabs and are booked on an ad-hoc basis, while liner trade vessels sailed along pre-determined routes and on fixed schedules, much like boarding a public bus which runs the same routes daily.
“For most container lines, it is common to see services planned along major trade lanes or hubs, where they have introduced a service into trade lane, where they are hoping to make an entry.
“Liner trade can be divided into two, such as direct service and transhipment service. A direct shipping line offers a service that connects origin ports directly to destination ports.
“Transhipment services on some trade lanes may be difficult to achieve full utilisation of vessels directly from each port of origin.
“To counter this, some shipping lines consolidate their cargoes from different origins into hub ports, from which larger volume of cargo for each location can be loaded to the next destination,’’ Martins said.
He, however, advised women in shipping to always be mindful of factors affecting liner trade, such as customer requirements, profitability, vessel availability and port availability.
The Continental President of WIMAFRICA, Mrs Jean Chiazor-Anishere, urged maritime women to always engage in training and workshops, to enable them to invest in shipping profession.
Chiazor-Anishere said that Nigeria had a vintage position in Africa to promote the tramp trade.
She advised women to work on how they could tap the shipping potential by patronising the tramp trade.
Chiazor-Anishere, however, said she would introduce some training programmes being organised by Nigeria to other continental bodies of the association, to enable women to fully tap the shipping potential.
In her remarks, the President of WIMAFRICA, Nigeria Branch, Hajia Bola Muse, called on professional women who have interest in shipping to join the association and benefit from the shipping business.
Muse said that there was need for more women to join the association, to enable them have a strong voice to tackle maritime challenges confronting government.
She said that the maritime domain was a male-dominated sector, saying that the association would bring more women together and also support the Federal Government to achieve its mandate in making Nigeria a preferred destination.