Hmmm!!! Folks, let us say the
truth and shame the devil. Many Nigerian non-oil products exporters have been
defrauded of huge amount of money in the process of exporting agricultural commodities
and solid minerals to foreign countries. Do you know why? They were not trained
on export operations, management, documentations and the best methods of
payment in export trade. This is terrible!!! Nigerians cannot continue to lose
money to foreigners in the course of export business. Exporters, would you like
to keep on being scammed? Why don’t you get a practical manual that explains the
stages of export trade from processing and packaging of commodities to receipt
of payment by the foreign buyers? It explains export operations, export
management, export documentations and methods of payment in export trade? Yes,
it is a contemporary step-by-step guide to export trade. It tells all the
contemporary dynamics in export trade. To get it, click on this link: http://www.tectono-business.com/2016/02/contemporary-step-by-step-guide-to.html
Tell
us all about Koinonia Ventures Limited
The word
‘Koinonia’ simply means ‘fellowship’ or ‘communion’. Koinonia Ventures Limited
was incorporated in 1997 but it started business in 1999. At the time, I was
the Export Manager at Stanmark Cocoa
Processing Company Limited, a subsidiary of Cadbury Nigeria Plc, but I
found out that I was stealing my employer’s time, because other CEOs were
coming to me right in the office to seek for advice. They wanted what it was
that I was doing for Stanmark to make them stand out? They wanted to know how
they could access one government programme or the other.
I was doing
all of these for free and I thought that I was a double loser because, I was
not using my employer’s time for what he was paying me for and I was not
getting paid for the advice. At that point, I thought it was time to move on,
and to turn that gift that was in me into money for myself and then into
something bigger for the country. That’s how we took the courage to throw in
the resignation letter and open shop; precisely on June 21, 1999.
Do you know that
you will minimize the amount of money you spend on food items when we deliver
the foods items to you in bulk at reduced price from our farms? For details,
click: http://www.tectono-business.com/2020/02/fresh-food-items-supply.html
What
services do you currently offer?
We offer
every service that has to do with trade: trade facilitation, export
consultancy, export capacity building, and positive criticism that is
result-oriented. For every issue that we take up, either with government or
with the real sector, we end it up with a solution that is visible, tangible,
practicable and implementable if there is a sincerity of purpose.
How
can SMEs in Nigeria enter the international market?
First of
all, SMEs in Nigeria have to satisfy the Nigerian market in terms of quality.
The international market place is all about standards and quality. It is all
about health, regulations and compliance. It is not a free-for-all environment
as we have in the domestic trade environment in Nigeria. Nigerian MSMEs
actually need to do a lot of preparation (capacity building) before they start.
I know that
over the past six to eight months, the clamour has been on international trade.
Everybody wants to export. In fact, I cannot tell how much stress I have been
under recently from those who have been contacting me about their interests in
export and how they can approach it. It is all about export-readiness, which is
what they must prepare their minds to acquire before they start talking about
export.
Assuming
we have achieved the quality standards and proven ourselves in the local
market, what will be the next step for SMEs going into this space?
I did talk
about regulation and compliance. For SMEs going into export, they need to
understand that there is a difference between export and smuggling. Export
means that you repatriate your proceeds through the bank, your sales are
captured by the relevant agencies in Nigeria and that your figures are part of
what the Central Bank is reporting. Any other thing outside that is classified
as smuggling.
The SMEs
must first and foremost register with the Nigerian
Export Promotion Council, the agency charged with this responsibility. The
SME must open a domiciliary account for export proceeds only and identify his
supply base, the export financing and then the market. Also, you can sub-group
these into the smaller components to know what you want to export, what
quantity is available for you to export, and whether the standards are seasonal
or they are available all year round.
You also
want to know what price you can get it to buy, whether it needs to be stored
and whether there are any damages involved in storage, freight-forwarding, etc.
All of these I put in the supply side. As far as financing is concerned, you do
need to procure, transport, package, pay the shipping line if you are selling
CIF (Cost Insurance and Freight), if not your importer pays for freight and
everything that has to do with financing the export. On the market side, you
want to know which country you’re exporting to, the import regulations, what
they require, and what kind of documentation that needs to be put in place
before you get paid. Once you’re able to get these three pedestals, then you’re
more than export ready.
Give
us one success story of an SME from Nigeria that has been able to export abroad
and how they did it.
I am not
sure if they are still there, but as a young officer in the Nigeria
Export Promotion Council, one of the companies that I was able to take to
the international marketplace was a company called Showunmi Craft. Every
summer, he would go with his suitcase, 25kg full of his adire and batik craft
for male and female, to the UK.
I went for a
local trade fair in Jos and I found Showunmi Craft and thought that this would
be good for the international market. We helped Showunmi Craft to register as
an exporter. In 1990, we took Showunmi Craft to the 4th Ghana International
Trade Fair. By the time we were leaving Ghana, Showunmi Craft already had two
agents and two shops in Accra and from there he was able to perfect and
continue his export. I was in Benin last week on a 1-day workshop for the
Nigerian Export Promotion Council and I did give them the example of another
MSME who actually was not interested in exporting. His name is Samuel, a Bronze
Caster from Benin City. I had to pitch to him to go to Germany for the Munich
Fair in 1992.
At that
time, I was in charge of International Trade Fairs at the NEPC. I actually had
to fund his international passport, not because he didn’t have the money, but
because he wasn’t interested in exporting. He had a lot of orders from the
National Commission for Museums and Monuments and he did not see any reason why
he should go to Germany. I told him that his products would bring him out
there. By the time he went there, on the very first day he opened, he sold one
single Benin bronze head for 10,000 Deutschmarks. He won a Gold medal as one of
the best products exhibiting in the Munich Fair in 1992 and today he has about
three shops in Germany. (Thisday)
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