Ask ten US brokers for a quote from Houston to Lagos. Six won't reply. Three will reply with a high spot rate and a "let me check on documentation" caveat. One will actually quote it.
That's not because the lane is unmovable. It's because most brokers treat ocean to Africa as one undifferentiated line item, and the lane has real differentiation. Lagos and Tema have different customs paperwork. Mombasa requires PVoC pre-shipment inspection certificates. Casablanca clears fast but inland trucking inside Morocco has different standards than inland trucking in Nigeria. A broker who hasn't actually run the lane defaults to "we'll figure it out" — which translates to delays, demurrage, and customs charges the shipper didn't budget.
We run the lane on purpose. Country-specific customs partnerships, named ports, pre-shipment certifications scoped before booking. The result: fewer holds, fewer surprises, faster total transit.