South Africa's SACO Shipping Expands into Nigeria with Lagos and Port Harcourt Offices

South African freight consolidator SACO Shipping has opened an office in Lagos and a branch in Port Harcourt. It is the company's latest step into West Africa, and it comes as Nigeria moves to spread cargo traffic beyond its congested Lagos ports.

The Lagos office will handle less-than-container-load (LCL) import bookings. With LCL, importers share container space with other shippers instead of paying for a full box. The Port Harcourt branch will serve Onne port.

Through SACO's wider group, which includes its affiliates Air Cargo Group and SACO Air, customers can also book full-container-load imports and international airfreight. Lagos will get bi-monthly consolidated sailings from Hamburg, Antwerp, Durban, Mumbai and Ningbo. Onne will have its own bi-monthly service from Hamburg.

The company said cargo from the United States, Australia, Italy, France and other markets can also be routed into Nigeria through its global network of offices and partners.

"Nigeria is a strategic hub for West African trade, but infrastructure constraints, market volatility and fragmented consolidation services have historically presented challenges for freight forwarders," said Ian Treder, SACO's West Africa Director.

SACO said the new offices will give forwarders more predictable groupage schedules and direct routings to and from Europe, Asia and southern Africa. That means fewer transshipments before cargo reaches Nigeria, and more reliable service for regional trade.

The launch falls in the same week that Nigeria's Federal Government approved the modernisation of four ports outside Lagos: Onne, Rivers, Delta and Calabar. It also approved six new deep seaports.

Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Adegboyega Oyetola said the plan aims to "reduce the concentration of cargo traffic around the Lagos axis." SACO's direct Hamburg–Onne link puts it in a good position as more cargo moves to the eastern ports.

The Nigerian offices connect to SACO's southern African branches in Durban, Cape Town, Johannesburg and Gqeberha. They also join its existing West African offices in Abidjan, Tema, Dakar, Cotonou and Conakry, giving the company one consolidated-cargo network across both regions.