- Crash Logistics Costs by 40%
L-r: Custom Comptroller SAHCO PLC., A.A Mihammed; Managing Director of SAHCO, Mr. Basil Agboarumi; Managing Director of abx world, Captain John Okakpu; Ethiopia Airlines representative, Mr Magnus Masader; Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, SAHCO, Mr. Olaniyi Adigun and Head Cargo Services, SAHCO, Mr Olajide Kadipe; during the strategic meeting at SAHCO complex…28/02/2019.
NewswatchNigeria can report that like mind organizations in the country’s agro export business have come up with a noble initiative that will crash export cost of agro produce by 40%. The initiative will also address the delay on logistics delivery.
Championed by ABX World, a courier and logistics company, and Skyway Aviation Handling Company Plc (SAHCO), the initiative will raise agro export from the country to 800 tones per day. It will also address the bottleneck of multiple taxation and levels from government agencies.
The organisations made this known during a strategic meeting with stakeholders in the industry which have in attendance, food and aggro-exporters, farmers, Custom, Flour Mills Nigeria PLC, aviation operator among others.
The initiative, the two organisations said was in response to the challenges faced by Nigerian exporters, which have diminished their competitiveness in the international market and have also caused volume of waste from the farm gates to the market places.They said government agencies have made the business environment to be unwholesome for economic sub-sector operators along the value chain. And efforts to make sure that the multiple agencies regulation are streamline according to best practices have not yielded results.
Consequently, the Managing Director of Abx world, Captain John Okakpu said, “we have decided to take a different turn on how do we reduce the logistic cost, and we have an alternative solution, while waiting for the government, that will at least take us off the ground.
“Our people are suffering and we really need to engage the government to review some of the policies with regards export.
“So the logistic cost we have now is quite reasonable and I believe within the next two months it is going to explode and it is going to get better and I am going to assure you that we are here to stay.
“Our ultimate goal is to do about 600 to 800 tonnes every day.
“The facilities and the structures in place are the reasons we are here today like the operation manager of SAHCO said, they have a cold room completed for more than two years ago and has not been used. so, the issue of damage or products not being fresh, SAHCO has resolved that.
READ ALSO: Why FAAN Okays Abx World,s Agro-allied Export Programmes
The reason why we choose to work with SAHCO is that they are ready to invest in the structures and infrastructures we need in this industry.
Commenting on the readiness of SAHCO the Managing Director, Basil Agboarumi, said that the company foresaw the need for adequate facilities to ensure preservation of agro-products for export.
To this end, he said that SAHCO had in the last five years invested millions of Naira in building modern facilities which are now ready for execution of the export projects.
In his words, “Recently we made an investment in buying a modern scanning machine which I just signed yesterday for the machines to come in. So talking about being prepared,
“I can tell you that we have been prepared for long and just waiting for a day like this to come. That is why as a company we are happy to be partnering with abx world to drive this vision.”
