E-Business
B2B E-commerce Solving Logistics Challenges Associated with Nigeria’s Informal Retail Sector
Worth over $100 billion, the Nigerian retail market is one of the most vibrant sectors of the Nigerian economy. There’s hardly a Nigerian street without a retailer. Such is the importance of these businesses to everyday life in the country.
As common as their services are, retail ventures in Nigeria are not for the faint hearted. Their day-to-day business life is full of challenges. From uncertain market prices to transportation hazards, a Nigerian retailer faces it all in the quest for survival.
One of the major challenges facing these sets of people is the restocking and transportation of their wares. Business-to-business e-commerce platforms are bridging the shopping gap by bringing retailers online and linking them to manufacturers.
The infrastructure deficits make transportation of goods after purchase more difficult. Many retailers incur losses in this process; either on damaged goods or high transportation charges.
Innovative B2B platforms identify this infrastructure deficit, and deploy their technology to change the delivery landscape for informal retailers in the country. Due to limited infrastructure, informal retailers have to go to great lengths to obtain inventory.
Distance to market, opportunity costs, dangers of travel, inadequate transport for purchased goods all impact informal retailers. Emerging technology trends are creating an environment where informal retailers no longer have to deal with these issues, thus changing the landscape for them one step at a time.
“For the past two years, we have delivered to informal retailers at no cost. With our delivery services, retailers save time, energy, and resources that they would have otherwise expended in restocking. These benefits have resulted in 85% of our retailers reducing their 2 – 4 times a week restock trips to zero,” said Alerzo Limited CEO, Adewale Opaleye.
This crucial sector of the economy is dominated by women who combine household roles with their business. Linking them up directly with manufacturers via the internet opens up more hours for family and other business activities. It also eliminates the goods transportation risk associated with loading and handling during the offloading process. With B2B e-commerce platforms providing logistics solutions, retailers are assured of quality and safe delivery.
Interestingly, the various industry players offer delivery services with different incentives to make their platforms preferred shopping options for retailers. Notably, Alerzo, a leader in the B2B e-commerce space offers free delivery for retailers stocking on their platform. Another industry player, TradeDepot, also offers free delivery for those who meet their required inventory value. This also saves them transportation costs and increases profit margins.
As more retailers embrace the online inventory channels, the delivery infrastructure of B2B e-commerce platforms might be key in filling a major infrastructure gap in the economy, just like the delivery network of B2C platforms is doing with third party service delivery for SMEs.
Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) is in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and needs urgent reforms to revive it, according to Isaac Kekemeke, board chairman of the service.
Kekemeke, who spoke at a workshop organised for NIPOST staff in Abuja yesterday, added that it is now time to go the whole hog to reform and make NIPOST fulfill its destiny to compare and compete favourably with multinational postal agencies.
“The approach may not be palatable at all times but we need to take the tough but necessary decisions to exit the intensive care unit. We are either out of ICU in good health or head for the morgue. NIPOST either functions effectively now as a commercialised state operator or gets privatised, so that myself, the PMG, and a good number of you risk the loss of our jobs,” the chairman said.
No doubt, he added, “Change is not always easy as many loathe change because of the uncertainty it brings but it is in my place to urge you all to embrace the change we advocate.”
The Internet Society’s six-month Fellowship Peering program continues to help make internet access affordable, dependable, and resilient. The program, according to the global charitable organisation, is targeted for fifteen professionals in the peering and interconnection sector.
“It offers a unique opportunity to build the skills, knowledge, and networks necessary to improve local Internet infrastructure and policy,” according to the site’s description.
The fellowship participants will participate in a comprehensive curriculum that includes virtual training sessions, collaborative forums, and technical and advocacy-based instruction on routing, Internet Exchange Points, and policy.
The fellowship culminates in attendance at a global peering event, which provides direct experience and networking opportunities with important voices in the Internet community.
The fellowship enhances participants’ impact in their particular nations by developing engagement with seasoned professionals and boosting regional and global collaboration. The program invites fellows to return to their communities prepared to expand interconnectivity, improve policy conditions, and make a meaningful contribution to the development of the Internet ecosystem.
Applicants must have at least three years of Internet experience and be based in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, or Asia-Pacific.
Eligibility also required proper travel documentation and availability to attend important events such as African Peering and Interconnection Forum, Latin American and Caribbean Network Operators Forum, or Peering Asia, as well as a commitment of roughly four hours per week over six months.
Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called for the withdrawal of the amendment of the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 because it seeks to regulate the activities of bloggers operating within the territorial boundaries of Nigeria.
The organisation in its letter urged Mr Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, and Mr Tajudeen Abbas, Speaker of the House of Representatives, to “immediately withdraw the repressive bill.”
The titled A Bill for an Act to Amend the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023, to Mandate the Establishment of Physical Offices within the Territorial Boundaries of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by Social Media Platforms and for Related Matters among others intends to regulate bloggers, including by requiring all bloggers to register local offices and join recognised national association for bloggers.
Currently, the bill has passed its first and second reading in the Senate.
In the letter signed its deputy director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP asked Mr Akpabio and Mr Abbas “to ensure that any amendment to the Nigeria Data Protection Act promotes and protects the rights of bloggers and other journalists and does not undermine the fundamental human rights of Nigerians.”
It demanded an end to “the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on the rights of Nigerians online and Internet-based content.”
In the letter dated April 12, 2025, the group said, “This bill is a blatant attempt to bring back and fast-track the obnoxious and widely rejected social media bill by the back-door.”
“If passed, the bill would also be used to ban major social media platforms—including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, TikTok, and independent bloggers if they ‘continuously fail to establish/register and maintain physical offices in Nigeria for a period of 30 days.
“Lawmakers should not become arbiters of truth in the public and political domain. Regulating the activities of bloggers and forcing them to associate would have a significant chilling effect on freedom of expression and lead to censorship or restraint.
“Should the National Assembly and its leadership fail to withdraw the bill to regulate the activities of bloggers, and should any such bill be assented to by President Bola Tinubu, SERAP would consider appropriate legal action to challenge the legality of any such law and ensure it is never implemented in the public interest,” the organisation warned.
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