Importing Nigerian food and drinks By Hélène Michaud
14-03-2006


Mustafa Ahmed's company in the Netherlands, Aisha Investments, imports Nigerian food and drinks to the Netherlands and distributes the products elsewhere in Europe, as far as Greece and Spain.

The market they target are members of the Nigerian and African diaspora in Europe, who cherish food and brands from back home: the pounded yam - one of Nigeria's national dishes - beans, red palm oil, palm wine, beers, even powdered milk are favourites among the 200 different items that are imported.
The products are processed, bottled, canned, and labelled by some 25 local staff in Nigeria before being shipped to the Netherlands. Aisha focuses on both the wholesale and retail market.

Growing pains

Mr Ahmed started his business with his wife and junior brother about seven years ago after graduating from the University of Amsterdam. "I felt the need to help improve the perception of Nigeria across Europe", he says. "Not all Nigerians are crooks, not all Nigerians are bad."
He says support from Dutch banks and from his family facilitated the launching of the company, but there were growing pains. "Initially, we made a lot of mistakes, for example by importing 'wrong" items': products that needed to go through rigorous controls before they could be imported into the Netherlands."
In one case, they had to return a whole container of milk products back to Nigeria. "After that we went back and got information on what was allowed in, and with the grace of God we bounced back and started pushing ahead."
"I belong to those categories of Africans in Holland who are really integrated into the system. Because of my command of the Dutch language, I did not find it difficult to understand the rules of doing business in this country. I know what is allowed, how the Dutch think, what they want and don't want, and I think with that experience, it was not very difficult to launch my business."

Officialdom

Mr Ahmed admits, however, that it can be difficult to deal with the many layers of legislation: the municipal, provincial and national laws. Also, the Nigerian government sometimes imposes limitations on exports. For example if there is a shortage of palm oil on the local market, exports from Nigeria will be curtailed in order to prevent inflation.

The secret of his success?

"I'm kind of steadfast and perseverant, and so are our customers. We are very reliable, and they are too. We get a lot of feedback from them and we work on that."