Maritime Legal Practitioners on Thursday advised cargo owners in Nigeria to use shipping companies that have emergency fund for support in the case of bankruptcy.
Some of the legal practitioners, who spoke at the closing ceremony of the 15th edition of the Maritime Seminar for Judges held in Abuja, urged cargo owners to investigate the viability of the companies.
Mrs Oritsematosan Edodo-Emore, an International Maritime Lawyer, said that a lot of lessons were learnt from the Hanjin shipping company, the largest shipping company in the world that fell into bankruptcy.
She said that cargo owners should always ensure that outside the insurance of cargoes, they investigate that the carrier has sufficient fund against insolvency.
“As the result of the bankruptcy of the Hanjin shipping company last year, it has brought a lot of lessons for cargo owners.
“ Before cargo owners use a carrier that will carry their cargoes, they should investigate that that carrier is sufficiently buoyant and it belongs to an alliance.
“ Alliance is a group of shipping companies that decide to carry a container for each other, they should find out whether that alliance has an emergency fund.
“In case, one of the companies becomes bankrupt, whether there is a fund that can support the problem of bankruptcy,“ she said.
However, Mr Femi Young, Chairman of Sun Logistics and Marine Services, United Kingdom, said that cargo owners should always investigate the viability of shipping companies before using them.
He said that Nigerian government could have a regulatory body that would investigate shipping companies annually, to enable cargo owners know the right carrier to use.
“Government should have a regulatory body that will annually; investigate shipping company to know which ones are viable.
“Some alliance have being set up, this alliance are group of shipping company that come together like a family, that if something happen to one of the company others will help.
“And out of those alliances, it is only one that has an emergency fund against insolvency.
“What am saying is that, maybe one of the rules that we should have is that, we should only use a shipping company that has emergency fund for insolvency,“ Young said.
Justice Olayinka Faji, Federal High Court, Lagos, said an importer is expected to know the statue of his carrier at the time of loading or before loading.
He said that the carrier has to be properly checked out and the contract of sale must be binding in terms of insurance stating that shipping companies needs to be monitored.
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