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Observater Surveys and Services Group · Africa
Breakbulk and general cargo surveyed at ports across Africa: steel, machinery, bagged and palletised goods, drums, cases, and project pieces, counted at the hook, condition recorded as found, damage tied to the leg that owns it, for receivers, carriers, P&I correspondents, and insurers worldwide.
Instruct the Desk WhatsAppIn one paragraph
General cargo surveyors in Africa are provided by Observater Surveys and Services Group, an independent, ISO 9001-certified marine and cargo survey practice headquartered at Mombasa that operates survey desks at more than 45 ports in more than 25 countries across East, West, Central, Southern, and North Africa and answers instructions 24 hours a day in English, French, and Portuguese. General cargo is attended at loading, discharge, transhipment, and delivery, with the count, the condition, and the custody recorded so the claim is decided on evidence.
Cases, drums, and pallets are counted by the party with the least reason to count carefully, and the shortage surfaces at the warehouse days later with no record behind it.
Crushed cases, bent steel, dented drums, and torn bags are argued between ship, stevedore, terminal, and haulier, and settled against whoever cannot prove it left their custody sound.
A cargo interest in Shanghai, Mumbai, or Rotterdam hears of the loss a week after the discharge, by which time the evidence has been moved, mixed, or delivered.
P&I correspondents and claims agents appointing a surveyor in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, or Mozambique need attendance the same day and a report they can send to a principal who was not there.
General cargo is everything that is not bulk and not boxed: steel coils, plate, pipes, and rebar; machinery and plant on skids; bagged rice, sugar, fertilizer, and cement; palletised goods; drums and IBCs; timber; and the project pieces too large or too awkward for a container. It crosses African quays at Lagos, Tema, Abidjan, Douala, Matadi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam, Durban, Maputo, and Luanda in volumes that hide losses well, because every piece is handled by hand and every handling is a chance for damage or disappearance.
Our general cargo surveyors attend the operation rather than its aftermath: the pre-loading condition at origin where instructed, the discharge at the hook with pieces counted and damage recorded as they land, the stack and the warehouse where custody changes hands, and the delivery at the receiver’s premises. The record is made from measurement and photograph placed in time, and it goes to the instructing party before anyone else. Also asked for as breakbulk surveyors, general cargo inspectors, vessel discharging surveyors, and cargo condition surveyors in Africa; the desk answers to all of it.
Pieces counted at the hook and reconciled at the stack against the manifest and the packing list, sound and damaged segregated under the surveyor’s eye, and the outturn certified with the reconciliation shown.
Damage recorded where it lies before anything moves: type, extent, and location per piece, photographs placed in time, cause tied to the leg that owns it, and quantum counted rather than accepted.
Condition at origin recorded piece by piece where instructed, mate’s receipts and bills aligned with what was actually shipped, stowage and securing verified before sailing.
Coils, plate, pipes, rebar, and wire rod: rust graded against recognised scales, seawater distinguished from fresh by test, handling damage recorded at the hook, and the file that separates transit damage from origin condition.
Serials, hours, and attachments verified at both ends, lifting and lashing witnessed, description disputes settled from the origin and delivery records.
Tally at the hook, torn and wet units recorded with weights, moisture spot-checked, delivery notes countersigned at the warehouse so the custody record closes cleanly.
Counts, seals, and condition per unit; leakage and contamination sampled under custody; cases opened under supervision where the instruction requires.
Cargo counted into and out of storage and between vessels or trucks, so the leg on which a shortage or damage entered can be named rather than argued.
A large part of the general cargo work instructed in Africa is the standard vessel discharging survey on behalf of a cargo insurer or its appointed surveyors and adjusters abroad: attendance through the discharge of a single-deck or multi-purpose vessel, the cargo counted and its condition recorded piece by piece as it lands, and the outturn reported to the insurer’s file. The desk runs these as single attendances and as programs, where a series of shipments, thirty or forty vessels over a season from one origin to one Nigerian or West African discharge point, is handled as one file with the same surveyors, the same checklist, and the same report format from the first vessel to the last.
Program shipments of this kind typically carry mixed general cargo on the order of tens of thousands of cubic metres per vessel: large project items, vehicles, and steel together with cased and palletised goods, discharged at private jetties and free trade zone docks as often as at the public terminals. Each vessel receives pre-discharge stow and hatch photographs, shift-by-shift attendance at the hook, unit records for vehicles, rust grading and handling damage for steel, lift witness for the heavy pieces, a shift report at the end of every shift, and a final discharge report per vessel; the program receives a running summary so the insurer sees the pattern across the series, not only the incident on one ship. The Nigeria discharging survey desk describes the attendance at Lagos and the free trade zone jetties in full.
A large part of the general cargo work instructed in Africa is the standard vessel discharging survey on behalf of a cargo insurer or its appointed surveyors and adjusters abroad: attendance through the discharge of a single-deck or multi-purpose vessel, the cargo counted and its condition recorded piece by piece as it lands, and the outturn reported to the insurer’s file. The desk runs these as single attendances and as programs, where a series of shipments, thirty or forty vessels over a season from one origin to one Nigerian or West African discharge point, is handled as one file with the same surveyors, the same checklist, and the same report format from the first vessel to the last.
Program shipments of this kind typically carry mixed general cargo on the order of tens of thousands of cubic metres per vessel: large project items, vehicles, and steel together with cased and palletised goods, discharged at private jetties and free trade zone docks as often as at the public terminals. Each vessel receives pre-discharge stow and hatch photographs, shift-by-shift attendance at the hook, unit records for vehicles, rust grading and handling damage for steel, lift witness for the heavy pieces, a shift report at the end of every shift, and a final discharge report per vessel; the program receives a running summary so the insurer sees the pattern across the series, not only the incident on one ship. The Nigeria discharging survey desk describes the attendance at Lagos and the free trade zone jetties in full.
A large share of general cargo instructions in Africa come from parties who are not on the continent: P&I correspondents and claims agents acting for Clubs and cargo underwriters, trading houses in Asia and Europe, and insurers whose assured has just reported a loss at Apapa or Tema. The desk is built for that instruction: attendance arranged within a day at the port cities, a preliminary with photographs the same evening, and a report written for a principal who was not there, in the format the appointing firm uses, with the appointing firm copied on everything and the relationship left where it belongs.
One interest per matter, declared at instruction and kept through the report, so that nothing the desk writes can be dismissed as the other side’s paper.
West Africa: Nigeria (Lagos, Port Harcourt, Onne, Warri, Calabar), Ghana (Tema, Takoradi), Ivory Coast (Abidjan, San Pedro), Senegal (Dakar), Togo, Benin, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone. Central Africa: Cameroon (Douala, Kribi), DR Congo (Matadi), the Republic of the Congo, Gabon. East Africa: Kenya (Mombasa, Lamu), Tanzania, Djibouti, Sudan, Madagascar. Southern Africa: South Africa, Mozambique, Angola. North Africa: Morocco. Each name opens that country’s own desk; our surveyors travel beyond the port cities by arrangement.
One email or message to ops@observater.com with the port, the vessel or consignment, the cargo, and the timing. The surveyor’s name, the scope in your words, and the fee return in writing before attendance. The desk attends at berth, terminal, warehouse, or premises following the operation rather than office hours, issues first findings the same day where the matter is urgent, and follows with the full report: dates, places, parties present, method, findings kept separate from conclusions, photographs placed in time, and the working annexed. Fees are quoted in writing before attendance; panel and program terms are available for correspondents and insurers who instruct regularly.
General cargo matters travel with their neighbours: the steel, the claim, the vessel, and the box. The desks below answer from the same practice, on one instruction line.
Observater Surveys and Services Group, an independent, ISO 9001-certified practice headquartered at Mombasa with desks at ports across East, West, Central, Southern, and North Africa, reporting to the instructing party first and answering day and night.
Non-bulk, non-containerised cargo: steel, machinery, bagged and palletised goods, drums and IBCs, cased goods, timber, and project pieces carried breakbulk.
Yes. Nominations are attended on the understanding that the relationship stays with the appointing firm, which is copied on every report; panel terms are quoted in writing.
Instructions are answered around the clock and attendance at the port cities is typically arranged within a day; where the vessel is already working, the desk aims to be at the hook for the next shift.
Yes, pre-shipment and loading surveys at African origins and, through the group’s correspondents, at origins abroad, so the origin record and the discharge record are reconciled by one desk.
On scope, quoted in writing before attendance and agreed before work begins; multi-port matters are quoted as one file, and regular instructing parties receive panel or program terms.
English, French, or Portuguese, as the country and the instructing party require.
From Lagos to Mombasa and Douala to Durban: general cargo counted at the hook, condition recorded as found, custody kept unbroken, and the report written for the reader who doubts it. Instruct once and the name follows the work: files across the coast arrive signed Observater, and the parties who read them start asking for Observater by name.
Observater Surveys and Services Group · ops@observater.com · All attendances are performed under our standard terms of business, available on request. Also see: Cargo Inspections in Africa · Nigeria · Cargo Surveyors in Lagos.
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© 2026 Observater Surveys and Services Group. All rights reserved.