How To Overcome Common Exportation Challenges In Nigeria

Just like every other businesses in Nigeria; exportation is not excluded from its own challenges. There are times you will feel like quitting exportation business because things are not just working. Sometimes you will run at lost and other time you will be scammed. Yes, you heard me right! There are cases when you will be scammed – that is just the simple truth; except you are very vigilant, sensitive and not greedy.

The good news about all this challenges is that it can be reduced greatly if not totally eradicated. That is why it is important for us to know how to overcome this common challenges beforehand by preparing for them early enough.

If you have met any practicing exporters in Nigeria; they will tell you their own side of the ugly story. The most annoying part of this story is that you will be scammed by your own people right here in Nigeria. For example: if you want to export charcoal and you are at the point of loading. Usually, there is no how you will be with the loaders (those boys loading your charcoal) and before you know it. They will load 17 tons instead of 22 tons and sometimes load some substandard charcoal that do not meet your client specification which may lead to your client rejecting your product. Ask them (the exporters) they will tell you several times when clients will call them to come and pick up their products because the products does not meet their specifications or it is not up to the required tons.

There is no reason to panic because we shall be talking about the solutions to these common exportation challenges in this post. The common challenges facing exporter in Nigeria are:

Common Challenges Facing Exporters In Nigeria

1. Lack of Experience
2. Impatient
3. Lack of Fund
4. Genuine Buyers’ Contacts
5. Meeting Clients’ Specifications

Solutions To Common Challenges Of Exporters In Nigeria

1. Get The Required Training/Skill (Expertise/Knowledge): Whatever might be the product you are thinking of exporting; make sure you have the required training on that particular product. This is because there are different specifications required for different products. People lose great deal in exportation because they did not have the right training. So, make sure you have one – a very good one indeed. How can you have one? Buy good books, attend seminar and have a mentor!
2. Be Patient: It is very unfortunate that most people are very impatient and exportation is not a business you can do in a rush. If you rush into it; you will definitely rush out. But before rushing out you will lose some awesome cash! Patient is a virtue that must be gotten if you must succeed as an exporter. Exportation is not a business that happens in the space of 1 – 2 weeks. Sometimes, it takes months. Just be patient with the process, yourself and your client.
3. Get Loan or Start Small: When it comes to money; exportation is not an exception. I have had cases when people will call me and tell me they want to go into BIG/LARGE exportation. I will ask them if they have done any form of exportation before and their usual response is No. I also ask if they have secured any deal by being an export AGENT and they will say… NO! And you want to go into BIG exportation? Then I’ll ask them if much it will cost to start one? And they will answer – No! Anyway, the cheapest type of BIG exportation you can do in Nigeria as at today is Charcoal exportation and it cost nothing less than N750,000 to export a container. That means if you are thinking of going into BIG exportation you must be have at least more than a million. That is what they won’t tell you in that seminar! However, there is a way you can still do BIG exportation in Nigeria without killing your finance – that is by becoming an agent. Click here to know how to become and export agent for FREE. Another way to go is to get LOAN. Click here to learn how to get loan without collateral.
4. Genuine Buyers Contacts: This is one of the major problems that faces exporters in Nigeria. Though, there are so many ways by which you can get contacts but I will be discussing two here.
   • Buying Contacts: This is the process where an individual or organization decides to sell his or her export contacts. You can get some contacts here to start with…
   • Going B2B Websites: Though, some are FREE but most of these B2B websites require you to make some payment (yearly registration FEE) before you get contacts of buyers from them and some are very expensive. Click here to get some reputable and very cheap B2B websites that you can register with and start getting contacts yourself.
5. Meeting Client Specifications: Did you know that most of the goods/products we exports need to meet some specifications? Charcoal, Cashew, Ginger, Palm Oil and many other products have specifications that must be met else your goods will be rejected. Meanwhile, there are some equipment required to carry out a test on these products to get the required specification and most of these equipment are not available in Nigeria. That is another reason why some people preferred to export Charcoal because it is easy to meet Charcoal exportation requirements.