Jan Willem de Braal, Trade Management Africa, explains the challenges and opportunities in our Africa Business

Could you please tell us a bit about your new role at Hapag-Lloyd?

The Africa trade will become a separate trade – which is a big compliment to us. I am happy to manage this new trade from a trade management perspective. And I really hope that my position will enable me to help the Africa community to gain momentum and to help grow the business. It makes me very happy to still be in the centre of all this after the merger.

How do you feel when you see your old company merging into a new company and adopting its name? Are you sad to see the brand name NileDutch go?

In terms of people and locations, there is some sadness when I think about losing this family that we were. I was very lucky because I travelled a lot, which allowed me to see all these people and to develop a family feeling with them. However, not just from a business perspective, but also from a personal point of view, the merger with Hapag-Lloyd was a logical conclusion. Given how the market is behaving, it would also have become difficult for NileDutch to remain in a standalone position, as we didn’t have our own ships and charter vessels have become incredibly expensive. There is also the issue of digitalisation, which NileDutch was a little behind on. The merger ensures that together we will have an opportunity to be successful. All the people at the NileDutch locations have a positive attitude towards Hapag-Lloyd.

We have established some of our own offices in Africa in recent years. But NileDutch has been there for a very long time, especially in West Africa. What potential does West African hold for us?

In many African countries, business is done by local and international people who have different backgrounds and come from all kinds of different cultures. This is something that I like very much. West African countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, have a lot of potential, but also big political and social issues. Nevertheless, the economy is growing even despite the pandemic! Angola has similarly high potential, and NileDutch was always known as an Angola specialist. Angola has had less favourable economic circumstances over the last six to seven years. However, there has been a new president since 2017 who is still working hard to make things better, and we expect a positive boost in Angola in 2022, which we will surely capitalize on. In Cameroon, it has been difficult for us to operate over the last decade. Lately, after the new Port of Kribi opened up, we have been doing much better. But as Hapag-Lloyd, we will enjoy a lot more success there.

Many economists predict that Africa will be a booming region in the years ahead. What are the key hurdles that Africa needs to overcome?

Despite the investments in ports and infrastructure on the continent, there are still a lot of challenges. Administrative processes often make it difficult for investors. The infrastructure still needs a lot of improvement in many places – and I’m not just talking about transportation, but also about electricity and internet connectivity. It would also benefit Africa to produce and assemble more products instead of importing finished goods. There is also a lot of room for improvement when it comes to the education system in many places. Easy access to education would create better circumstances for everybody. For the continent and for us as a carrier, it would also be beneficial if there was more trade between the African countries and more exports.

What key challenges do you see at the moment?

At the moment, we are helping the customers of NileDutch to get used to the changes that come along with the merger. The customer feedback that we have received so far has been positive. A lot of big NileDutch customers have already been doing business with Hapag-Lloyd and know how the company works. But we also have to manage those who haven’t worked with Hapag-Lloyd yet. We have listed the critical customers and we are managing the process of integrating them so as to make them feel confident about the changes. The most important thing for us is to make sure that the NileDutch customers are able to continue their business. Every customer of NileDutch has understood why we merged with Hapag-Lloyd. They know that this is a good thing and that it will benefit them all.