Shipping from China to Nigeria

Three ways goods move

Sea freight

Priced per cubic metre, and the cheapest way to move volume. A full container makes sense once you are buying enough to fill one. Expect weeks on the water, then clearing time at the Lagos port on top. For a first order, a full container often ties up more money than the trade justifies.

Air freight

Priced per kilogram, measured in days rather than weeks, and considerably more expensive. It earns its cost for light, valuable or urgent stock. Phone accessories that need to be on the shelf before December, or fashion pieces for a specific selling window, can justify it if the margin carries the freight.

Groupage, and why most first-timers should start here

Groupage means your few hundred kilograms travel in a shared container and you pay for the space you use. You test the supplier, test the market and learn the clearing process without committing to a container. There is no shame in starting small. The traders who lose the most are usually the ones who went big on the first order.

What it actually costs you, landed

The number that matters is not the price the supplier quotes at the booth. It is the landed cost: everything needed to get the goods to the point where you can sell them.

That runs from the unit price and packaging, through transport inside China, inspection, export handling, the freight itself, destination handling, documentation, duty and taxes, clearing, any storage while the container waits, and delivery to your shop or warehouse. A product that looks cheap in Guangzhou can arrive with no margin left in it.

So the question is never whether a price is good. It is whether the goods can reach Computer Village, Ladipo, Balogun, Onitsha or Ariaria at a total cost that still leaves you room. We work that figure out with you in naira before you order, not after.

The paperwork Customs will ask about

Form M

Commercial imports go through Form M, processed by your bank, declaring what you are importing, from whom and at what value. It takes time and it belongs at the beginning of the process, not after the vessel sails. Goods arriving against an incomplete Form M is one of the most common and most avoidable delays.

SONCAP

Many manufactured goods need a certificate under the Standards Organisation of Nigeria conformity assessment programme. The testing and certification happen on the China side, before shipping, which is exactly why it has to be agreed with your supplier at order stage. Discovering the requirement when your container is already at Apapa is expensive.

NAFDAC

Food, drugs, cosmetics and related products fall under NAFDAC and need the appropriate registration or clearance. If you are importing cosmetics or anything consumable, check this before you place the order, not after.

The HS code

Every product has a code that sets the duty rate and decides which other agencies get involved. The wrong code means the wrong duty, which means reassessment, delay and sometimes penalty. Your agent needs the right code before the goods arrive.

Clearing at Apapa and Tin Can

Delay at the Lagos ports is common, and when you trace it back it is usually one paper: a Form M that was not completed properly, a certificate whose product description does not match the invoice, a bill of lading that disagrees with the packing list.

Nobody can guarantee what Customs will do on any given day. A container can be selected for physical examination. Procedures change. Systems go down. What you can control is whether every document is correct and complete before the vessel arrives, and that is most of the battle.

Two dates that decide whether an order makes sense

The December season. Goods ordered at an October fair and shipped by sea are tight for December selling. Production takes time, the voyage takes weeks, clearing takes more. Air changes the arithmetic but costs more per kilo. Better to hear that before you order than to watch your Christmas stock arrive in January.

Chinese New Year. It falls on 6 February 2027, and factories close for several weeks around it. An order placed at an autumn fair either finishes production comfortably before the holiday or waits until March. Ask your supplier for the production schedule in writing and check it against that date.

Before you pay a supplier

Freight is the last risk, not the first. Most losses happen earlier, when money leaves before anybody has seen the goods. Have the supplier checked. Get samples and approve them. Have the cartons opened, counted and photographed in Guangzhou before anything ships, and keep your balance unpaid until you have seen that. Freight arranged around a bad order is just an expensive way to import a problem.

Be clear-eyed about what an inspection is. It confirms the quantity, the packaging and the agreed quality points on the cartons that were opened. It cannot promise that every unit in a large shipment is perfect, and it cannot make a product legal to import if it does not meet Nigerian requirements. Agree in advance what will be checked and what report you will receive.

One more thing, and it costs people real money every year. If account details ever change suddenly, by message, near the time a payment is due, stop and call the desk on the number you already have. Changed account details arriving at the last minute is one of the oldest and most effective frauds in import trade.