A few weeks ago on March 1, 2025, Ghanaian shipping and logistics tycoon Alhaji Asoma Banda passed away at the ripe age of 92. Having been raised in a prominent family in the trucking industry, Asoma’s father, a cattle trader, imported cattle from all over Mali to the Gold Coast. Shortly after his O’levels in 1953, his father reportedly handed him a truck to join the business, but his lack of expertise saw him performing abysmally at the job. Once, his father even sent him along with a relative to buy livestock from Mopti, a town in Mali, which they would then herd all the way back to Ghana on foot, an endeavour that would take about three months.

After Ghana gained independence in 1957, Asoma was offered the position of Regional Organizer for The Young Pioneers by Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah himself, but turned it down, electing to further his studies in England instead. This was around the time when, container transportation was on the cusp of revolutionizing international shipping and world trade at large.

In West Africa and Africa to a large extent, container shipping started in the 1970s with the establishment of BFI by Alhaji Asoma Banda in 1975 which later transmogrified into OTAL (OT Africa Line). OT Africa Line was founded as a cutting-edge, roll-on-roll-off (Ro-Ro) transit system that beats congestion in Nigeria. When oil was discovered in the middle of the 1970s, Nigeria saw a huge construction boom, and the necessity to provide equipment and building supplies led to port congestion. Roll-on roll-off vessels can load and unload rapidly, occupying less wharf area and avoiding traffic jams. In collaboration with construction companies like Julius Berger, Alhaji Banda hired trailers from London, put them in Ro-Ro ship and flew lorry drivers in from London to come and discharge the trucks. This commenced what will become Africa’s 3rd largest Shipping line by tonnage.

The Ro-Ro ship was docked at Bull-nose quay at the Port of Apapa at the time ports around the world were undergoing the 2nd generation of port development where ports were becoming industrial enclaves and developing specialized terminals like container terminals and bulk (both dry and liquid bulk) terminals. OTAL later started transporting containers with its fleet of 12 ships at a time Ghana’s Blackstar line had about 25 ships. But this innovation from Alhaji Banda did not come without difficulties. In the 1970s/1980s, shipping alliances and conferences had become ripe in Global shipping and any shipping line that wasn’t part of the alliances was treated with iron fists, but Alhaji Asoma Banda stood his grounds and refused to be part of the shipping alliance at the time of the "40:40:20 shipping rule, also known as the cargo sharing formula.

OTAL filed a case against the shipping alliance at the EU Headquarters in Brussels on grounds of monopoly because according to Alhaji Banda, the European shipping lines were taking all the best cargo and giving African shipping lines bad cargo to carry. In addition, this practice enabled the European shipping lines to make more profit and retrofit their ships whilst the African shipping lines continued using dilapidated ships which were more costly to run. Even though Alhaji Banda won this case, most of the African National shipping lines including Ghana’s Blackstar line collapsed due to this unfair practice. OTAL maintained its 3rd position in the business until 1999 when the South African shipping line, SafMarine went up for sale. Alhaji Asoma Banda offered $350 million but Bollore Africa Logistics, a French company offered to buy the company for $450 million then from nowhere, Maersk line offered $800 million and won the bid. Alhaji later partnered with Vincent Bollore as OTAL and Bollore became a joint venture. But Alhaji Banda was not only doing continental shipping; he was also into terminal management, inland transportation and door-to-door services and owing to his brilliant idea, today the box container has decimated all ports in Africa with the Tema port handling more than 1 million TEUs within the first quarter of 2024. The container has made shipping cheaper and changed the economies of African states. This new economic geography allowed African firms whose ambitions had been purely domestic to become international companies, exporting their products almost as effortlessly as selling them nearby.

Today in Africa, out of the ingenuity of Alhaji Asoma Banda, the shipping container has evolved far beyond its original purpose of transporting cargo, as it is widely repurposed for various innovative applications across industries, such as affordable, eco-friendly housing solutions, emergency shelters, on-site repair units for industries like mining and construction, hydroponic or aquaponic farms within containers, durable, customizable swimming pools, etc. As an intern with Bolloré Africa Logistics in Tema in 2007, I had the opportunity to meet him firsthand, and I would describe him as affable and a truly great man.

May Allah, in His infinite mercy and grace, grant Alhaji Asoma Banda the highest rank in Jannah (heaven) and surround him with eternal peace and blessings.

Writer:

Evans Ago Tetteh, Ph.D.
Lecturer, Regional Maritime University.

Acting Chief, Kpone-Sebrepor.

References

• Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. (2019). Economics of sea transport and international trade
• Edmund Chilaka, personal communication, 2023
• Levinson, M. (2006). The box: How the shipping container made the world smaller and the world economy bigger. Princeton University Press.