The Supplier’s Price Is the Smallest Number in the Deal

People ask what the goods cost in China. The question that decides whether they make money is what the goods cost sitting in a warehouse in Nigeria, cleared, with nothing outstanding.

Those two numbers are far apart. The distance between them is where importers get hurt.

What follows is the sequence as it happens, with the cost attached at each step. It applies whether you are bringing in a container of clothing, a pallet of inverters or one vehicle.

1. Decide the specification before you look for a supplier

This is out of order in most people’s heads and it is the most expensive mistake on the list.

Go looking for a price before you have decided exactly what you want and you will be sold whatever is cheapest to manufacture. It will look identical to what you wanted in the photographs. It will not perform like it.

Specification means the boring numbers. Fabric weight in GSM. Panel output and frame thickness. Continuous wattage rather than peak. Engine capacity, now that it decides a tax band. Write them down first, then ask for a price against them, so every quote you receive is comparable to every other one.

2. Find the factory, not the reseller

Most listings on the big platforms belong to trading companies. That is not automatically bad. On a small mixed order a good trading company is genuinely useful, because a factory that makes one thing will not assemble an order across six product lines.

But you should know which you are dealing with, because you are paying a margin either way and you deserve to know what it buys.

The checks worth doing: business licence and scope, whether they actually manufacture the item or buy it in, factory audit or inspection reports, and export experience to West Africa specifically. A supplier who has never shipped to Lagos will get the paperwork wrong in ways that cost you weeks at the other end.

The four places importers lose money

Paying a deposit to an unverified account. Payment redirected to a new company account at the last minute is the oldest fraud in this trade and it still works every week.

Skipping pre-shipment inspection. Once goods are on the water your leverage is gone. Inspection costs a fraction of a container and it is the last point at which a problem is still the supplier’s problem rather than yours.

Underdeclaring value to reduce duty. Customs applies its own valuation. When a declared figure does not survive scrutiny you get delay, penalty and demurrage, and demurrage compounds daily while somebody argues.

Forgetting the last mile. The quote gets you to Lagos. It does not get you to Kano, Aba or Ibadan, and on a full container that leg is real money.

3. Read the three letters on the quote

An EXW price will always look cheaper than a CIF price for the same goods. It is not cheaper. It is less complete.

When you compare two suppliers, check you are comparing the same term. A great many people have chosen the wrong supplier by putting an EXW number next to a CIF one and reading the smaller figure as the better deal.

4. Freight is charged on space, not weight

Sea freight is priced on the cubic metres your goods occupy. Instinct says heavy things cost more to ship, and instinct is wrong. A container of pillows and a container of tiles cost broadly the same to move, and the pillows are worth far less.

The practical consequence is that bulky low-value goods are the hardest things to import profitably, and you win on them through packing density and full container loads rather than through clever negotiating on unit price. Our CBM calculation page exists so you can work this out before ordering rather than after.

Air freight is charged on whichever is greater, actual weight or volumetric weight. It earns its place on small, valuable, urgent goods and almost nowhere else.

5. Certification, arranged at origin

This is the step that turns a good deal into a stranded container.

Electrical and electronic goods fall inside the Standards Organisation of Nigeria conformity programme, and certification happens at origin, before the goods sail. Communications equipment needs NCC type approval, and there is a public database you can check a model against in minutes.

Anything containing lithium cells moves as dangerous goods under UN3480 or UN3481, with test documentation, correct marking and a declaration. That covers power banks, storage batteries and the cells inside torches, fans, clippers and speakers. An undeclared lithium consignment is a risk to the whole vessel and gets treated accordingly.

And some things simply cannot come in. Used compressors, and used fridges, freezers and air conditioners, sit on the Customs absolute prohibition list. We do not quote for them however good the price is.

6. Duty, clearing and the port

Duty is computed on the Customs value. That is not automatically the figure on your invoice, and where Customs disagrees its valuation is the one that applies.

Beyond duty sits terminal handling, the agency fee, and any inspection or examination the consignment attracts.

Vehicles carry a further layer since 1 July 2026, when levies were cut and a green tax keyed to engine capacity began. That is set out in full on the vehicle duty page.

7. The exchange rate, which is not a footnote

Your supplier prices in dollars or yuan. You earn and pay in naira. Between agreeing a price and clearing the goods sits 20 to 30 days of production and another 30 to 40 of shipping, and the rate does not wait for you.

This is why we quote in naira and say openly that the figure is revisable if the rate moves. A fixed naira price across a two-month import either carries a very large hidden cushion or has not been thought through. The rate board carries current figures, and the yuan rate matters more than people expect when you are paying a Chinese supplier directly.

China is a default, not a rule

Most sourcing questions in Nigeria get framed as China questions because that is how the search term is written.

We source from every nation, and on some goods it matters. Origin changes quality tiers, certification routes and freight economics. Sometimes the honest answer is Turkey, or India, or a Nigerian distributor who already holds stock. We say so when that is the case, and in electrical goods it happens more often than in any other category.

What it looks like done properly

You state what you want and roughly how many. Specification is confirmed with the supplier in writing rather than assumed from a listing. The supplier is verified before money moves. Certification is arranged at origin. Goods are inspected before shipment.

Then you get one naira figure with every line itemised, so you can see the goods, the freight, the duty, the clearing and the haulage separately instead of one lump you are asked to trust.

And when the goods arrive there is no second conversation about money. That is the actual test of whether the first conversation was honest.

If you want that done as a piece of analysis before committing to anything, the Advanced Import Analysis is built for it. If you only want a straight read on a purchase you are weighing, the free quote review costs nothing.

Send the product and the quantity

A photograph or a link is enough to start. We come back with where it is made, whether the specification suits Nigeria, what certification it needs, and what it lands at in naira with every line itemised.

Browse what we already source: electrical and electronics, fashion and apparel, vehicles. Or ask on WhatsApp.