Three quotes for the same goods are almost never comparable as written. One is FOB Lagos in dollars, one is EXW Tema in cedis, one bundles inspection. Here is how to normalise them to a single number, and what to hold constant before you ask.
Quotes are not comparable until the Incoterm, unit of measure, currency, payment terms and quality spec are identical. Fix all five in the request, not after the replies arrive. The same shipment quoted EXW versus DDP can differ by 20-45% of goods value without either supplier being dishonest. Convert every quote to landed cost per unit at your own door before ranking them. Headline unit price ranks the wrong supplier first. Lead time is the field buyers leave vaguest and lose most on: 4% cheaper and six weeks later is usually a loss. Intra-African shipments may reach zero duty under AfCFTA against a valid Certificate of Origin, but only on a tariff line the destination has actually liberalised. Collect three to five quotes. Below three there is no distribution to judge against; above five the delay costs more than the information. Before paying, match the bank account name to the registered company name exactly. A mismatch is a stop, not a query.
Because the headline number answers different questions in each quote. A price quoted EXW covers the goods sitting at the supplier gate — you pay for export clearance, inland haulage, terminal handling, freight, insurance, import duty and delivery. A price quoted DDP covers all of it. Between those two extremes the same physical shipment can differ by 20 to 45 percent of goods value without a single supplier being dishonest. Four other differences do the same quietly: Unit of measure. Per kilogram against per metric tonne against per bag, where a bag is 50 kg from one supplier and 62.5 kg from another. Currency. A quote in naira or cedis carries the spread and the movement between quote and settlement; a quote in dollars moves that risk onto the supplier, who prices it in. Payment terms. 100 percent in advance against 30/70 against payment on delivery is a financing cost and a risk posit
Six fields. Send them as a specification, not a question — a supplier asked to quote however they like will quote in whatever shape flatters them. Field What to specify What goes wrong if you leave it open Incoterm 2020 One rule and one named place, e.g. FOB Tema or CIF Rotterdam Quotes span the whole EXW-to-DDP range and look like a price difference Unit and quantity Per metric tonne, total tonnes, and packaging Bag weights differ silently between suppliers Currency One settlement currency for every reply You compare across an exchange rate you have not fixed Quality spec Grade, moisture, purity, certification required The cheapest quote is for a lower grade Payment terms The structure you will actually accept The cheap price is contingent on full advance Lead time Required ready-to-ship date, in days from order Lead time is quoted as a range and never held Lead time deserves its own no
Bring every quote to landed cost per unit at your own warehouse door. The arithmetic is not difficult; the discipline is doing it for all of them rather than for the one that looks best. Landed cost per unit = ( goods value + export clearance and inland haulage to port + terminal handling and documentation + freight + insurance + import duty and VAT + customs brokerage + destination haulage + financing cost of the payment terms ) / total units delivered Two components are where African sourcing diverges most from sourcing elsewhere, and both are worth calculating rather than assuming: Duty. Intra-African shipments may qualify for AfCFTA preferential rates against a valid Certificate of Origin, which can move duty to zero on a liberalised tariff line. That is a per-tariff-line, per-destination question, not a continental one. Corridor risk. Port dwell time, inland transit reliability and
Yes, and there are three broad approaches, each with a real trade-off. Approach How it works Trade-off Direct outreach Email or WhatsApp each supplier individually Full control, no fees; quotes arrive in incompatible shapes and normalising them is manual Sourcing agent or buying office An intermediary collects and normalises quotes for you Genuine expertise; commission, and the agent chooses which suppliers you see Structured request on a platform One structured request fans out; replies return in a fixed schema Comparable by construction; limited to suppliers on that platform On Afrikoni the third approach is the default: a buyer describes the requirement once, verified suppliers reply with binding quotes in a fixed schema, and quotes are compared on total landed cost, lead time and corridor risk rather than unit price alone. Coverage is deepest today in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Afr
Three to five for a first purchase. Below three you have no distribution and cannot tell an outlier from a market rate. Above five the marginal quote rarely changes the decision and the delay starts to cost more than the information is worth. Keep every quote you reject — a written record of what the market quoted on a date is the strongest position you can hold in the next negotiation.
The bank account name matches the registered company name exactly. A mismatch is a stop, not a query. The company exists and is active in its national registry. The quote states a validity period. A quote with no expiry is not a commitment. The quality spec in the quote matches the spec you asked for, word for word. Who pays if the goods fail inspection, and at whose cost the inspection happens.
ICC — Incoterms 2020 rules AfCFTA Secretariat tralac — African trade law and tariff analysis World Customs Organization — Harmonized System