Half of cargo handled in Africa and the Middle East is classified as dangerous, a Kenyan shipping official warned at an international shipping parley which ended on Tuesday.
”Research findings indicate that 50% of cargo handled in the Africa and Middle East region (RAME) of the International Federation of Freight Forwarders Association (FIATA), was classified as hazardous,” Kenya International Freight and Warehousing Association (KIFWA) chairman Samwel Njoroge warned on Tuesday.
The two-day conference brought together FIATA secretariat officials from Zurich and presidents of national freight fowarders associations from Africa and the Middle East.
”The authorities have accorded the issue lukewarm attention, thereby exposing those in the shipping industry to danger,” Njoroge told the closing session RAME-FIATA conference on Tuesday.
”Lack of awareness in coping up with problems of handling dangerous goods, is a problem many of our handling staff have no clue to what extent the problem goes,” Njoroge said.
He said despite persistent media reports on accidents and casualties resulting from handling hazardous goods, no efforts has been made by stakeholders to prepare their staff for such eventualities.
”The public is unable to do anything and have waited long for somebody to do something, but regrettably, little or no effort by those in the industry has been put into this phenomenon,” Njoroge pointed out.
FIATA senior vice president Issa Baluch said African nations needed to ratify various international conventions on the carriage of goods in order to remain in tune with the international maritime and transportation norms.
Baluch urged those in the shipping industry to embrace
e-commerce, saying information technology had become the new business language in the world.
”It is the new language of the business world, and unless you are fluent in it, you will not understand the rest of the world and none will communicate to you either,” Baluch added. – Sapa-AFP