Abstract: | This paper describes an approach for identifying dominant freight nodes in southwestern Nigeria based on freight distributing organizations, and interactions among the nodes in which the freight distributing organizations are located. The identification of the dominant freight nodes in the study area was based on the principle that the degree of importance of any node in the distribution of commodities is determined by the number of other nodes with which it interacts. In trying to find the number of these other nodes, the author used the information given by distributive organizations (retail and wholesale distributors) as to the sources of their commodities, and the location of their customers. The pattern of internodal linkages in terms of interactions amongst commodity distributing organizations shows a concentration of freight distributing activities in a few centres within the study area. Out of the 64 sampled nodes, 12 nodes were selected as the major freight nodes in the area. These nodes include the capital cities of Lagos, Ibadan (Oyo State), Abeokuta (Ogun State), Benin City (Bendel State), Akure (Ondo State), and Ilorin (Kwara State), and other main urban centres which are older traditional towns and transit depot centres for freight moving through and destined for the region, viz. Ijebu-Ode, Ilesa, Osogbo, Ondo, Ile-Ife, and Warri. Bibliogr. |