Bello Tukur, managing director of Riverlake, a shipbroking company headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland with subsidiary in Lagos, has blamed lack of required education as well as lack of awareness for absence of reputable shipbrokers in Nigeria.
Speaking during an interview on Maritime Today, a radio show on Lagos Traffic 96.1FM, Tukur said that membership of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) is encouraged for an aspiring shipbroker to get the required knowledge and study to pass the exams set to be able to hold dear the motto of ICS – “Our Word, Our Bond”.
“In Nigeria, not many people are aware of shipbroking and not many charterers and ship-owners value the services of shipbrokers. Globally, in countries such as London, Dubai, New York, Geneva, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore, shipbroking is respected and valued as an integral part of shipping as the major carrier of global trade,” he said.
He further added that “the shipping industry is capital-intensive” so one must have the technical and financial capital to get one’s foot in the shipbroking door.
He explained shipbroking at length, stressing its importance to the shipping industry which accounts for 90 percent of the world’s global trade.
Shipbroking is a financial service which forms part of the global shipping industry; shipbrokers are specialist intermediaries between ship-owners and charterers who use ships to transport cargo, or between buyers and sellers of vessels.
Tukur began his shipping career in 2005 as a Terminals Operators Coordinator for Global Gas and Refining Ltd, Port Harcourt. He worked as a tanker operator for E.A. Gibson Shipbrokers Ltd, UK in the late 2000s before working as a commercial/chartering manager for Daddo Maritime Services, Lagos from 2011-2015.
His Riverlake experience began in 2015 as chartering director before becoming managing director.
