500 Nigerian companies to benefit from $400bn Amazon market – Expert

NAN reports that the EEFP is being implemented by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

NAN reports that part of the partnership would enable both institutions o train the non-oil exporters on how to label their products to meet US regulators’ requirements, warehousing of the product as well as listing and sales, among others.

“We are basically a company that is helping businesses of all sizes to access the U.S. markets through a combination of training, export, free warehouse facilities in the US, finding buyers, and putting their products in Amazon.

“Amazon do 33 billion dollars sales monthly and out of this we are looking at three billion dollars in food and another four billion dollars in cosmetics; and Nigeria has a lot of resources on these areas, especially food export.

“So that is one of the key things we are doing; helping to put Nigerian products in the US market, offer them warehousing, find them buyers and have their products on Amazon.

“The NEPC’s EEFP has been amazing. One thing I like about it is its openness.

“We are into training and other things and through that EEFP, NEPC gives us grants to help us expand and help thousands of businesses in Nigeria.

“We are going to be reaching over 10,000 businesses, helping them to export in 2022 and also helping about 500 Nigerian companies to be listed on Amazon in 2022.

“These feats would not have been possible without the intervention of EEFP by NEPC,” Nduka said.

Nduka explained that if a local producer could export to the U.S., then such producer could export to anywhere.

“You just need your commercial invoice, manifest, and other documents, and these are the things we help companies to do.

“The reason some Nigerian products were being rejected at international markets was that they did not meet specifications.

“So we set up a training scheme where businesses are trained on requirements for export before they engage in export.

“We just don’t tell people how to export, we held them by the hand, show them how their products should be, and also have a team that would help them get the various licenses.

“EEFP saw that we have put about 50 Nigerian companies on Amazon and they came and say, can we get 500 companies on Amazon; and that is the target they gave us and we are on track to achieve it,” he said.

He explained that the 50 Nigerian companies that Buy and Sell Nigeria Ltd put on Amazon used to sell locally, but are now earning dollars.

“A company was selling a litre of honey here at two thousand naira, but when we got it into Amazon, it is selling at the equivalent of N18, 000. “Another one was selling a black soap for four hundred naira here, now it is selling for eight thousand naira at Amazon,” he added.

According to him, the American economy is worth 18 trillion dollars, adding that if local producers in Nigeria can export successfully to America, we can generate between three to ten billion dollars annually.

“We will help export any product and get it listed on Amazon as long as it is consumable in the U.S. We can also help in packaging them for export.

“So, from food, cosmetics, building materials to electrical products and any other that are used or consumed in the world, we can help get the licenses you need to export to the US.

“We don’t just go into export, we find buyers in the U.S., which is a critical component of what Nigerians are looking for; and through the NEPC’s EEFP, it is made possible and easy,” he said.