Foreign businesses reshaping Nigerian commerce, SERC warns

A maritime research group, Sea Empowerment and Research Center, has warned that integrated global supply chains are increasingly challenging the traditional business model in which foreign manufacturers produce goods, Nigerian importers bring them into the country, clearing agents process them, wholesalers distribute them, and retailers sell them to consumers.

The group also stressed that the recent developments at major Nigerian trading centres, particularly the reported September 15, 2026, protest by traders at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex over the alleged increasing participation of Chinese businesses in direct retail and domestic distribution, should not be viewed merely as another market dispute.

SEREC maintained that the development should be regarded as a strategic warning about the changing architecture of international commerce and competition in Nigeria.

SEREC disclosed this in a bulletin on Wednesday signed by its Head of Research, Eugene Nweke, obtained by The PUNCH.

“The traditional business model in which foreign manufacturers produce goods, Nigerian importers bring them into the country, clearing agents process them, wholesalers distribute them, and retailers sell them to consumers is increasingly being challenged by integrated global supply chains,” SEREC warned.

According to the group, manufacturers and international businesses can combine production, financing, shipping, warehousing, digital commerce, distribution and retail in ways that reduce dependence on traditional intermediaries.

SEREC maintained that the development is not exclusively a Chinese phenomenon; rather, it is part of a wider transformation driven by globalisation, “e-commerce, technology, logistics integration and increasingly sophisticated supply-chain management.”

The group queried why foreign businesses are coming into the Nigerian market. “The fundamental question for Nigeria is therefore not simply, why are foreign businesses coming into our markets?” SEREC queried.

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SEREC also expressed worry about why Nigerian businesses are still operating predominantly at the trading and distribution end of value chains when Nigeria possesses the market, resources, entrepreneurial capacity and regional access necessary to produce, add value, brand and export.

SEREC called for Nigeria to urgently transition from an economy disproportionately dependent on importation and resale towards one driven by production, value addition, manufacturing, logistics, branding and exports.

SEREC highlighted that the African Continental Free Trade Area, Nigeria’s Free Trade Zone system and the country’s large domestic market provide important platforms for this transition, adding that the opportunity is not to isolate Nigeria from foreign competition but rather to make Nigerian enterprise competitive within Nigeria and across Africa.

SEREC reiterated that the reported September 15 protest at the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex reflects growing concerns among some Nigerian traders about foreign businesses allegedly participating directly in domestic retail and distribution.

“Whatever the immediate facts and competing claims surrounding particular businesses, the development raises a broader economic question,” the group concluded.