What not to import from China, and why people keep trying

What not to import from China: banned finished goods, saturated categories, branded anything, and the regulated goods that take six months to register.

What not to import is the more useful half of the product question, and nobody writes it because there is no course to sell at the end. Four groups of products account for most of the money Nigerian importers lose: things that are banned, things everybody else is already selling, things that belong to somebody else's brand, and things that need a registration nobody mentioned. This page is all four, and the honest reasoning behind each.

Group one: the banned things people pick anyway #

There is a cruel pattern in Nigeria's import prohibition list. The banned finished goods are exactly the ones a beginner would choose, because they are light, cheap in China and obviously in demand.

Footwear and bags. Banned as finished goods. Our shoes page explains what is and is not allowed.

Furniture. Banned, with narrow exceptions for laboratory furniture, stadium chairs, furniture components and vehicle seats. Components are a real trade; a container of finished chairs is a seizure. Our Foshan page covers the distinction.

Plastic household wares. Banned. Our Yiwu page flags it, because Yiwu is full of them.

Used clothing, used fridges, used air conditioners, used compressors. All banned.

Used tyres. Banned outright. SON told an importers' training in April 2023 that all second hand tyres qualify for seizure and destruction.

Counterfeit and pirated articles, on the absolute prohibition list under the Customs Service Act 2023.

And from 1 April 2026, seventeen further items from outside ECOWAS including bagged cement. Our prohibited imports page is the full list and it is the first page to read in this business.

Group two: the saturated categories #

Nothing legally stops you importing these. The market does.

The signs that a category is saturated are consistent: everybody in your WhatsApp groups is selling it, the price on Jumia is below what you calculated as your landed cost, there are ten sellers of the identical thing on Instagram with identical photographs from the same supplier, and the margin has to be defended with free delivery.

What that means in practice is that the product is being sold by people who either buy in far greater volume than you, or have not done their own arithmetic and are losing money slowly. Competing with the first is hard. Competing with the second is impossible, because they will undercut you until they run out of capital, and by then so have you.

We are not going to publish a list of saturated products, because it would be out of date within months and because the real skill is learning to read the signs. Do this instead, before you order:

1. Search the exact product on Jumia, Konga and Instagram
2. Note the lowest price a real seller is actually charging
3. Compare it with your calculated landed cost from our margin page
4. If the gap is thin, walk away. There will be another product

Group three: anything with somebody else's name on it #

Counterfeits are on the absolute prohibition list, and the Merchandise Marks Act makes dealing in goods with forged trademarks a criminal offence with imprisonment available. If a container is seized and destroyed, the importer bears the detention, storage and destruction costs on top of losing the goods.

The categories where this bites hardest are branded electronics accessories, branded auto parts, designer fashion, branded cosmetics and branded phones, because that is where the counterfeit share of what is offered to you is highest. Our counterfeit page sets out the law and the defence.

The alternative is better anyway: buy unbranded, or put your own name on it. A generic product with your packaging is legal, defensible and builds something you own rather than something you rent from a brand that does not know you exist.

Group four: the regulated things nobody warned you about #

These are not banned. They are simply much slower and more expensive than a beginner expects, and the cost arrives after the money has been spent.

Cosmetics, food, drugs and supplements. NAFDAC requires registration before import, officially 120 working days for an imported cosmetic, with a power of attorney notarised in China and a certificate of manufacture authenticated by the Nigerian mission in China. And only the registrant may import the registered product. Our cosmetics page has the route.

Phones. Type approval from the Nigerian Communications Commission, plus a device registration system rolled out through 2026, with the Commission's position that unregistered devices will not be permitted on Nigerian networks. Our phones page covers what is settled and what is not.

Anything with a loose lithium battery. Dangerous goods. Power banks are forbidden as cargo on passenger aircraft, must ship at no more than 30 percent charge, and are refused outright by ordinary parcel services. Our battery page is the full picture.

Most manufactured goods, which need SONCAP, assessed in China before loading, with a penalty of 20 percent of CIF or 2 million naira, whichever is higher, for arriving without it.

None of these is a reason not to trade in the category. They are reasons to price the certification into the plan and to start the paperwork before the goods, which is exactly the opposite of what most people do.

So what should you not import, in one sentence? #

Every one of these mistakes has the same shape: the product was chosen first, and the constraints were discovered afterwards.

The order that works is the reverse. Check the prohibition list. Check which certificate applies and what it costs. Check what the thing actually sells for in Nigeria today. Do the landed cost. Then choose the product, from whatever survived.

That method is slower, less exciting and considerably more profitable. Our product selection page walks through it, and our capital page covers sizing the first order so that being wrong is survivable.

First published 20 Sep 2026. Last checked 20 Sep 2026 by The ChinaBridge desk. Something here out of date? Tell us in the comments and we will fix it.