Teralco Logistics is beefing up its cross-border operation by adding routes and investing in infrastructure.According to founder and managing director Terence Odendaal, this is part of a long-term strategy to grow the company’s footprint in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“While the year has got off to a shaky start with tensions in the Middle East, Covid-19 and oil price wars, we believe 2020 can still be a good year for logistics in Sub-Saharan Africa.“This region remains behind the curve in terms of development and can therefore still expect plenty of growth to come.”
Odendaal said opening up additional cross-border routes was a top priority. “We have also invested in a new 25 000 pallet-racked, food grade facility near OR Tambo International airport delivering more warehousing space to our customers.”
Significant investment has also been made into state-of-the-art equipment, giving the company the ability to handle larger volumes of cargo daily in the often challenging African landscape.“Customers often do not understand the dynamics behind African supply chains,” said Odendaal.
Emphasising the importance of choosing correct partners, he added “it is essential to have a logistics service provider who understands the cross-border landscape as there are huge risks to this trade. Every T must be crossed and I dotted.” He said congested and inefficient borders across Sub-Saharan Africa remained the single greatest obstacle to improving intra-Africa trade and cooperation.
“The Africa Continental Free Trade agreement is a great start at a political level, but the basics remain important on the ground and that is to aim for electronic, 24-hour, one-stop borders where personnel are incentivised by time-savings to users."
