MissMeiya:

They did it to make foreign products more expensive to promote local business. Unfortunately, it's not working, because as the OP mentioned, the importers never actually pay the tax.

They did the same thing to palm oil. Nigerian palm oil is SOOO uncompetitive on the global market. It only barely survives locally because of the tax on imported palm oil. Even still, manufacturers have to import the high-quality palm oil from Asia, because there isn't enough of it in Nigeria.

Onegai:

That was my first thought when I heard 40% tax on imports (I personally support manufacturing in Nigeria). But I think importation gives a greater profit since the tax isn't enforced or importers bribe their way through.

Some people I know are interested in Agricultural produce (they've got their ideas and I've got mine). Can I ask you though, what do you think about manufacturing in Nigeria? Like the OP said, even I would have thought buying trucks from the Netherlands will be cheaper, but in his experience, "wetin dey for Sokoto, dey better in your shokoto". So does the same apply to manufacturing?

davidif:

Have you ever heard of the law of unintended consequences? That's what that situation looks like to me.

jdilight:

No that is not how it look.

Let me explain it. If we produce palm oil at 50 naira per liter in Nigeria we will likely sell at 70 naira making a profit of 5 naira as producers. Now someone in Malesya produces at 30 naira per liter sell to Nigerian importers at 50 naira, the importer comes to Nigeria sell at 65 naira. The Nigerian producer will have to reduce price which will wipe his profit away. So he closes down throws all his workers out. But govt. say no, importer pays a tax of 14 naira per liter imported. Importation becomes unattractive so the importers turns to manufacturer and employ Nigerians. This is how GDP grows not that the poor man in the street will be able to buy a car.

iceberylin: The annoying part is Foreigners think Naija is a Great Country....

i jst laugh @ dia stupidiry

MissMeiya:

They don't have anything better to do.

bigx: Most Nigerians Have such an evil, backward mindset. Threads like this expose them. No wonder... it's not the leaders

musicwriter:

My brother. This country is finished!. The rate of persimism in Nigeria is killing this country. There are many insightful posts like this hidding in many threads unknown!.
I also personally think the people calling him a scam are actually professional scammers, otherwise, they have to explain us how they arrived at that conclusion.

atlwireles: Just tell us you are looking for investors in your haulage business.

ThaiAlNigeria:

As I had written before, unfortunately, my websites email info@thai-alpha.com on my website is not working as we had left the website unworked for almost 2 years. But we are currently revamping it which will take around 2 months to complete. And the email should be operational within 2 months.

WRONG! Your website is barely a year old. So, how come you have had it unworked for almost 2 years?

I did also like to mention that although I am a Thai citizen, I however do not look like a Thai. I look more like Turkish/Italianish. It is important to know that we are currently living in an increasingly globalized world whereby a Chinese looking man can be Canadian citizen or any of the European citizen. An African man can be a United States Citizen. My managers thought that I should mention this.

Inasmuch as I quite agree with you that globalization have played a significant role in our society and the world at large, thus making it easier for an expat to become a citizen of another country. However, this does not mean he/she would look differently, I think the physical appearance of someone has nothing to do with the term globalization as you had mentioned, but GENE. So, are you originally of Turkish/Italian descent ? Or where precisely?

Please pardon my inquisitiveness. I just want you to know that there are lots of silent followers on this very thread, who might end up patronizing you as business partners someday, and it is good we get some certain information and details right at the onset. Thank you!



After I have answered all your queries I will try to write up more info about the business here.

My humblest regards,

Your friend.

ThaiAlNigeria: Ghettodreams -- Thanks for your comments. We tested our website and web email check around May 2012. So the website was up since. It did go down once or twice since.

I should have elaborated that my descendants are from Turkey. They migrated to Thailand around 40 years ago. I was born in Thailand which allows me to be a Thai citizen.

Thanks again for your comments.

My Humblest regards,

Your Friend.

ogb5:

I read the most part of your write up. The conclusion is that you still know very little about doing business in Nigeria as regards government policies.

You failed in your rice business because your business model was at variance with the government policies on rice. 40% duty on rice is meant to discourage what you were planning to do, that is dump Thailand rice on Nigerians. Government policy is meant to encourage value addition to imported products before it hits the Nigerian market.

To this end you will find that while importation of bagged cement is prohibited, importation of bulk cement and cement clinker is allowed. While import duty on packed tomato paste is 40% , duty on bulk tomato paste is 10%. In the same vein packed table salt has 70% duty while the bulk salt has very low duty.

If you must bring rice from Thailand to Nigeria then bring in the un-milled rice. Mill it and bag it in Nigeria. That way you will be working in line with government policy thrust and enjoy Lower duty on your import.

that is what many large scale importers are doing and you think they are not paying duty.

ThaiAlNigeria:

What you say is true. There is indeed lower duty on unmilled with unpacked rice. However I only gave information that I felt was relevant to the main topic. There is ofcourse alot more information and I could write an essay on it. That's not what I intend to do. However since you did bring it up, I can confirm this -:

-- From what I know is we had to register that rice with Nafdac which was a tedious and long process (upto six months to a year. (Anything that is eaten by the Nigerian population has to pass through Nafdac. There is absolutely no other way).
-- Milling and packing it in Nigeria was a huge undertaking beyond our financial capacity.
-- From what I know, Thai Parboiled rice is most consumed and well received rice by Nigerians. These parboiled rice has been milled here in Thailand. If that is the case, and these parboiled rice has not been milled in Nigeria, how can these rice escape the import tax? Unless ofcourse the lower tax duties only applies to unpacked rice of any kind including milled parboiled rice.
-- People may or may not pay import tax, I do not know. What I can confirm is that was what was told to us by port authorities.
-- I can confirm that I've talked to many Thai rice producers and exporters and they know the Nigeria market well. They say they always get orders of "containers" of 50kg packs (Largest packs of rice) unlabeled/labelled packed parboiled rice into Nigeria. So obviously, containers of packed rice is a very common practice in Nigeria. My business intuition will obviously ask how can they compete?
-- Yes, import duties are there to discouraged importation of rice and encourage local production. But Nigeria does not yet produce enough rice for the population. It would be great if all rice was produced in Nigeria itself.
-- Rice is like an important commodity and is already controlled by the Big Players.
-- I think if I recollect, import taxes are escaped in another way. But rice has to be imported into Benin. From there they haul it into Lagos. In fact, I recollect that many Thai exporters are exporting it to Benin and from Benin it enters Lagos.
-- I can also definitely confirm that most rice imported into Nigeria are milled rice, broken or parboiled. Very little is bulk unmilled import.

Issues which I cannot confirm is, if you want to import unpacked rice into Nigeria, (milled parboield or unmilled) you need to import it in a shipload which is obviously beyond our capacity. Another unconfirmed issue is the poor milling facilities in Nigeria. Nigeria does not have a proper milling facility yet.

Another point I did like to make is, in business you continue to learn new things everyday. Enjoy the process of business, share ideas, learn and grow.

My humblest regards,

Your Friend.

PS -- The link here will give some insights about what I mentioned above regarding unofficial rice trade from Benin to Nigeria.

http://www.oryza.com/news/rice-news/benin-benefits-nigeria%E2%80%99s-anti-import-policy-rice

ThaiAlNigeria:
11) Always get 2x100 Volts Battery

tizzle1932: www.karigonow.com - Taking haulage/transportation to the next level.