The WCA Family of Logistic Networks opens its 8^th regional office in Ghana, Africa. This expansion during the current economic slump is a bold move that David Yokeum, president of the network felt was necessary for the benefit of the network. David Yokeum commented that his decision was influenced greatly by the demands of the membership; feedback from members was clear that the WCA Family had to strengthen their efforts in the African continent, demanding more strong and professional independent freight forwarders in the region with a wide range of capabilities to further extend the reach of the alliance.

Understanding that Africa was a fast emerging market and that many international freight forwarders were very cautious about doing business within the continent – Mr. David Yokeum realized that the job would have to be handled by someone with local knowledge and more importantly someone who could hit the ground running. Mr. Gangadhar Iyer met these criteria having lived in Africa for over 14 years working closely with shipping lines, air carriers, transport companies, customs brokers and freight forwarders across the continent as well as being fluent in English, Portuguese and French. The biggest task that Mr. Iyer will face is identifying the best freight forwarders that can fit with the WCA Family of Logistics Networks, having to visit each office, review their facilities and meet their staff – this is the only way that he can truly identify strong new potential members and allow them to apply for WCAF membership.

Mr. Iyer commented that his initial plans are “to concentrate on countries that are fast developing and having little or no membership representation” within the group and “to be able to identify reliable forwarders with the capacity, credibility and the capability to extend their services to our existing fellow members.” All selected independent freight forwarders who pass the rigorous financial checks and who join the membership will immediately be covered by the networks Gold Medallion member to member financial protection plan – helping members to do business within the group with complete confidence.

Ghana was an ideal location for the new office because of its easy access to the northern and southern parts of Africa with good infrastructure in place to visit neighboring countries as well as regular connecting air flights to various parts of the continent allowing Mr. Iyer to do the necessary fieldwork when visiting prospects.

The importance of selecting qualified forwarders is critical in Africa due to numerous challenges faced by the logistics industry within the continent. “What may look like a clear straight road on a map might actually be a road riddled with crater sized potholes, or may pass through areas infested with wild animals or even bandits and robbers” said Mr. Iyer. Qualified members would have to be local experts with knowledge of such challenges and be able to find solutions and / or recognize the potential time constraints allowing better communication to their partners and customers.

This expansion will not only benefit the forwarders in the region and existing members around the world but shippers and consignees now will be able to have more reliable options to select from knowing that top forwarders within the group now can partner with each other in and out of the continent of Africa.

With this new office in place, the WCA Family of Logistic Networks looks forward to further improving their networks wide range of professional independent freight forwarders, offering them service centers across the globe, an ability that no other logistics network can claim.