© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.
Observater Surveys and Services Group · Since Mombasa, For Africa
Observater Surveys and Services Group is an African marine survey group: our own registered companies, stationed surveyors, and active operations across the continent’s trading regions, and one standard of evidence from the first attendance to the final report.
Talk to the Team Email the GroupObservater Marine and Cargo Surveyors carry out all types of marine and cargo surveys and inspections across Africa, and work the way the continent’s trade works: around the clock, at every berth and anchorage, and on every cargo, container, and vessel.
On the cargo side: discharge surveys and discharge supervision, loading, pre-loading, and stowage surveys, tally surveys with independent tally clerks, draft surveys and bulk weight determination, container, seal, and devanning surveys, cargo damage surveys, pre-shipment inspection with certificates to letter-of-credit wording, cargo superintendence, loss control, and warehouse and stock verification.
On the marine side: ship and vessel condition surveys, on-hire and off-hire surveys, holds and hatch cover inspections, hatch cover watertight testing, hull and machinery damage surveys, casualty attendance, P&I attendance and club entry condition surveys, bunker quantity and ROB surveys with MARPOL sampling, and in-water hull inspections through approved divers.
Headquartered in Mombasa on Sauti ya Kenya Road, with the claims office on Moi Avenue, the group serves importers, exporters, mining and trading houses, shipowners, charterers, insurers, P&I clubs and their correspondents, banks, forwarders, and terminals with independent figures and clear, well-organised reports.
We act for one interest per matter, and we are easy to work with: tell us the vessel, the container, or the consignment, and we take it from there.
Our own companies and offices. The group stands on its own registered companies and stationed surveyors across Africa’s trading regions: our offices, our people, our standard, from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic.
Active operations. Across the continent’s trading regions, from West Africa to the DRC, Angola, Zambia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and Cameroon, the group’s surveyors attend on instruction, with every attendance confirmed in writing before work begins.
Worldwide on one line. Beyond Africa, the group’s instruction line runs worldwide: surveyors abroad work under Observater’s standard and quality review, so distance never changes what the client receives.
Observater’s strength is a simple pairing: surveyors who know Africa’s ports, corridors, warehouses, and job sites from the ground, and reporting built to the international standard insurers, adjusters, banks, and tribunals work with. A file from Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Djibouti, Conakry, or Lagos reads the same way: instruction and attendance record, particulars, findings in the order they were made, cause presented separately from fact, quantum with the arithmetic shown, and annexes with the photographs, tallies, calculation sheets, and sample custody that let any reader check any line. The group’s reach extends worldwide through the same instruction line, and the Africa coverage runs port by port, corridor by corridor.
The group works as one desk with four arms. Cargo: superintendence, discharge, loading, tally, draft, and pre-shipment work across dry, liquid, project, and containerized cargo. Marine: vessel condition, on/off hire, H&M, casualty, P&I, and the bunker survey family from stems to MARPOL. Claims: investigation, documentation, and claims management carried from first attendance to settlement. Engineering and technical: inspection and consultancy for equipment, plant, and project interfaces. One instruction can call on any of the four, and often does.
Independence first. One interest per matter: if the other side of your dispute has instructed us, we say so and stand aside. The figure is worth nothing if the hand that took it was conflicted.
In writing, before work begins. The surveyor’s name, the scope, the attendance time, and the fee reach you on paper first, so every decision is made with the numbers in front of you.
Evidence over opinion. Findings are recorded as found, photographed, timed, and placed; cause is argued from the record; and honest adverse news is delivered early, because a comfortable report helps nobody.
Findings reach you first. The instructing party reads the report before anyone else, and the desk answers around the clock, every day of the year.
Observater began where East Africa’s trade begins, at Mombasa, and grew the way cargo moves: along the corridors. The work followed the containers up the SGR to Nairobi and the Northern Corridor to Kampala and Kigali; it followed the vessels down the coast to Dar es Salaam and across to Djibouti; and it followed the principals who asked the same question in port after port: can the figure we settle on be independent here too? The answer became registered companies of our own, stationed surveyors, and active operations across the continent’s trading regions, with a single instruction line behind all of it. One team, one standard, wherever the file goes.
The Northern Corridor and the SGR. From Mombasa’s berths to the Nairobi ICDs and on to Kampala and Kigali: seal checks, warehouse receiving, and claims work follow the cargo inland on the same instruction.
The Central Corridor. Dar es Salaam’s trade for Rwanda, Burundi, eastern DRC, and Zambia is attended at the port and traced along the road and rail behind it.
The Southern Gates. Maputo, Beira, and Nacala carry the corridors to Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi, and Durban anchors the region’s largest gateway: the group works the quay and the corridor as one file.
West Africa’s gateways. From Lagos and the Gulf of Guinea to Conakry, Dakar, and the Bamako road, the group’s active operations attend the ports and the routes that feed the interior.
Importers & receivers. The consignment lands with the invoice already paid. Our count and condition record give the receiver a fair basis to claim rather than absorb the loss.
Exporters & producers. Crops and minerals argue from documents after sailing. Weight, sampling, and certificates fixed at loading are the seller’s voice at destination.
Shipowners, managers & charterers. Condition at delivery and redelivery, holds passed before the laycan, bunkers fixed in one attendance: the charter opens and closes on documents.
P&I clubs & correspondents. One appointment per matter, impartial attendance at every hour, first findings shared quickly, quantum counted rather than accepted.
Cargo insurers & underwriters. Cause, custody, and quantum established independently, so claims settle on evidence, fairly and without delay.
Banks & trade finance. Certificates to credit wording and standing stock verification give lenders their own sight of the collateral they finance.
Traders & mining houses. Dry tonnes, grades, and moisture fixed at the berth by an independent hand carry the invoice to the smelter or the plant.
Forwarders, agents & transporters. Your client holds you responsible for every hand the cargo passes through. Our record speaks for the links you never controlled.
Terminals, lines & stevedores. The operational side instructs us too: independent tally and damage records protect the honest operator’s account.
1. You send the matter. Vessel, container, consignment, or dispute, by WhatsApp or email, any hour of any day.
2. We confirm in writing. The surveyor’s name, the scope, the attendance time, and the fee reach you on paper before anything starts.
3. The attendance happens. Findings recorded as found, photographed, timed, and placed, with protests issued while they matter.
4. You read it first. First findings shared quickly where the matter is live, and the full report issued to the instructing party before anyone else.
Every report from every port follows one anatomy, so a principal who reads one Observater file can read them all: the instruction and attendance record; the vessel, cargo, or equipment particulars; findings in the order they were made, separated cleanly from interpretation; cause presented on the evidence; quantum with the arithmetic shown line by line; and annexes carrying the photographs, tallies, calculation sheets, and sample custody records that let any reader check any figure. It is written for the people who act on it: insurers, adjusters, P&I clubs, banks, and the lawyers who inherit the file when a matter hardens.
Each category has its own way of losing value, and the group surveys each with the discipline its failures demand, from the hatch to the warehouse to the corridor.
East Africa runs from Mombasa and Lamu through Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Mtwara, and Zanzibar to Djibouti, with Kampala served along the corridor. Southern Africa runs Maputo, Beira, and Nacala to Durban, Richards Bay, Cape Town, and Gqeberha. West and Central Africa run Nigeria’s ports, Lomé, Tema and Takoradi, Cotonou, Abidjan and San Pédro, Dakar, Conakry and Kamsar, Douala and Kribi, Pointe-Noire, Matadi, Luanda and Lobito, with the Maghreb served at Casablanca, Tanger Med, and Safi. Wherever the port, the instruction line and the report standard are the same.
African trade does not end at African waters, and neither does the group. For matters outside the continent, Observater’s instruction line runs through surveyors abroad who work under our reporting standard and our quality review, so a principal deals with one desk whether the survey is at the loadport in Asia, the discharge berth in Europe, or the transshipment hub between them. For African exporters, that means out-turn and condition attendance at the destination port, matched against the loading file we built at origin; for importers, it means pre-shipment eyes at the supplier’s end before the letter of credit pays; and for owners and clubs, it means the vessel matter that started in Mombasa or Lagos can be followed wherever she sails next. The group’s worldwide reach runs on the same rule as everything else: scope, surveyor, and fee in writing before work begins.
The group works under a simple watchword: One Team, One Fight. When a matter crosses a border, the file does not change hands: the surveyor in Dar es Salaam, the claims handler in Mombasa, and the attending partner at a destination port abroad work the same instruction, read the same record, and answer to the same standard. A shortage discovered at a corridor warehouse in Kampala is fought with the tally taken at the Mombasa hatch; a quality deduction raised at a plant in Asia is answered with the sealed split drawn at loading in Conakry; a redelivery dispute in one ocean is settled with the on-hire record made in another. The client’s side is the team’s side, one interest per matter, from the first attendance to the last word of the last report.
We offer all round cargo and marine survey services in ports, cargo yards, warehouses, and job sites across Africa and beyond, because value does not stop moving at the quay. Stock is verified where it is stored, project cargo is attended where it is erected, containers are opened where they are devanned, and claims are investigated where the loss actually sits, whether that is a bonded warehouse behind the port, an ICD up the railway, or a project site days inland. The same surveyors, the same instruction line, and the same report standard follow the cargo wherever it goes.
Most survey firms stop at the report; Observater’s claims desk carries the matter forward. The evidence gathered at the quay is assembled into the form adjusters and underwriters work with, quantum is stated with the arithmetic shown, liability is placed on the leg the record supports, and the claim is presented and followed through to settlement, with the principal briefed at every turn. When the honest answer is that a claim will not succeed, that answer is delivered early, so money is not spent chasing what the evidence cannot carry. The desk works both directions: pursuing recoveries for cargo interests, and measuring incoming claims for carriers, clubs, and insurers before anything is paid.
Headquarters, Mombasa. Sauti ya Kenya Road: the group’s operational home, where the instruction desk answers around the clock, every day of the year.
Claims office, Moi Avenue. The claims and recoveries desk sits with the files it fights for, minutes from the port they usually begin in.
One line for everything. WhatsApp +254 776 960 820 and ops@observater.com reach every company and every desk in the group, for any port, any hour.
Observater stands on its own registered companies, its stationed surveyors, and its active operations, spread across the continent’s trading regions and staffed by the group’s own people. Every company and every desk works under the same terms of business and reports to the same standard, so an instruction to any of them is an instruction to all of them.
Around the companies stands the coverage: surveyors stationed at the ports the trade actually runs through, from Luanda and Lobito on the Angolan coast to Durban at the southern gateway, and active operations across the DRC, Zambia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, and West Africa’s gateways from Lagos and Lomé to Conakry and Dakar. Together the companies, the stationed surveyors, and the active operations put the group in more than 64 ports across over 35 African countries, all reached through one instruction line, with who attends, when, and at what fee confirmed in writing before work begins.
Beyond the continent, the group’s reach runs worldwide: surveyors in the major trading regions work under Observater’s instruction line, follow the same report anatomy, and pass the same quality review, so a matter that begins at an African quay can be attended at a loadport in Asia, a discharge berth in Europe, or a transshipment hub between them, without the principal ever dealing with more than one desk.
Safe attendance. Our surveyors board and attend under the port’s and the vessel’s safety regimes, properly equipped, inducted where required, and inside the permit systems that govern tanks, holds, and working decks.
Environmental evidence done properly. MARPOL sampling, pollution incident records, and de-bunkering supervision are handled with sealed custody and full documentation, because environmental files carry consequences.
Respect for the operation. A survey should never cost the port or the vessel time it does not have to: attendances are planned to the operation, and disruption is kept to what the evidence genuinely requires.
The group grows by finding surveyors who already work the way we do: independent, exact, and honest about what the evidence shows. Marine and cargo surveyors in African ports who hold themselves to that standard, and surveyors who want their work reviewed against it, are welcome to write to ops@observater.com. Vetting is real, the reporting standard is taught, and the instruction line brings work to those who pass it: that is how one team stays one team across a continent.
Observater is an African marine and cargo survey group headquartered in Mombasa, Kenya, with its own registered companies, stationed surveyors, and active operations across the continent’s trading regions, and capacity to serve worldwide through one instruction line.
Yes. The group acts for one interest per matter, discloses any conflict before accepting an appointment, and issues findings to the instructing party first. Independence is the product: the figure only settles arguments if no side owns it.
Across more than 64 ports in over 35 African countries, from Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, and Djibouti to Lagos, Conakry, Maputo, and Durban, plus the corridors, warehouses, and job sites behind them, with worldwide reach on the same instruction line.
Send the vessel, the container, or the consignment by WhatsApp or email, any hour. The surveyor’s name, the scope, the attendance time, and the fee come back in writing, and work begins on your go-ahead.
Yes. Matters outside the continent are attended under the group’s instruction line and quality review, so the principal deals with one desk from origin to destination, with scope, surveyor, and fee confirmed in writing before work begins.
Shipping and ship management, cargo trading and commodities, mining and minerals, agriculture and food imports, insurance and P&I, banking and trade finance, freight forwarding and logistics, terminals and stevedoring, and project and energy construction, each with the survey discipline its cargo and contracts demand.
One team, one standard, one interest per matter
Every trade that crosses a quay produces figures, and the figures always serve somebody. Observater exists so that at least one set of them serves you: taken independently, recorded as found, and reported first to the party who instructed us. From whichever seat you hold, importer or owner, insurer or bank, send the matter and the attendance details come back in writing before anything starts.
Talk to the Team Email the GroupInternational Marine Cargo Surveyors, Claims Handlers and Technical Consultants in Africa. On-ground expertise, global reach: anywhere you go in Africa, we are already there, with capacity to serve globally.
Observater Surveys and Services Group · ops@observater.com · All attendances are performed under our standard terms of business, available on request. Also see: Africa coverage · Global coverage · Contact us.
When precision matters, Observater Surveys Group is your Partner of Choice
© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.