Coronavirus Raises Prices Of Electronics, Others As Imports Fall

The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Nigeria has dropped import volume from China, as a result prices of electronics and other commodities have hiked by 5-10%.

David Ike, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Devine Computers Ltd, an importer of electronics based in Ikeja, Lagos, told THE WHISTLER, that the Nigeria- China trade relation has been affected by the outbreak of the virus, as he said that the volume of import has reduced drastically and that importers, especially of electronics, were losing millions.

Ike who is a major importer of goods from China added that the supply chain was being threatened by the pandemic.

According to him, “People have restricted their movements to China even without government restriction. Consequently, the volume of imports has reduced. The move has affected the price due to the fall in import volume.

“Those who have the goods in stock have also taken advantage of the outbreak to hike the price of their goods.”

He also said that the surge in prices was not exclusive to electronics, but all imports from China.

The importer said further that, “some of us cannot go to China at this time. Those businesses who buy wholesale from me particularly, will not have what to sell to retailers, and that is how prices will be affected.”

“While those who take the risk to import from China, will definitely shoot up their prices.”

Another Lagos based dealer, Udochukwu Onyike, founder of Big Push Ltd. said that most of the firms had marked up their prices for new electronics by 5-10%, especially computers.

Onyike said further that the most affected goods were new supplies from China. He added that goods from the US have not witnessed much price increase as they are mostly fairly used goods.

The proprietor of Wuluz Mobile, at Bannex Complex, Abuja, who did not disclose her name to this website, said that the coronavirus has cut supply of stock from China.

She said that prices of phones from both manufacturers and whole sellers are on the high side and it had affected their own prices.

He added that customer patronage had become low due to increase in the prices of the phones, which was a response to the effect of the fall in the volume of imports.

According to her, “with the current price of phone and accessories, customer demand has become low, coupled with poor condition of the country’s economy.”

The Branch manager of Pointek, at Wuse 2, Abuja, Stephen, told THE WHISTLER that the corona virus had affected the prices of phone on sale by his company, adding that its head office in Lagos where it gets its supplies was finding it difficult to import from China, which is their major import route.

According to him, “the company has marked up prices to cover for the increase in cost of sourcing the goods.”

Furniture companies who source their raw materials from China are not left from the negative impact.

The branch manager of Bedmate Furniture, Gwarimpa Abuja, Inans Levi, said that the company had put on hold alll imports from China and it’s affecting production.

The manager added that there were brands of furniture customers would want but would not find because the raw materials used for their production are not available at the factory.

Levi said that the items manufactured by the company usually has 70% local content and 30% content from China.

He added that prices have however changed a bit due to the shortage, but the company did not intend to take advantage of the virus spread and inflate price.

Meanwhile, China is one of Nigeria’s major import partner in Africa alongside South Africa. The National Bureau of Statistics said in 2019 that import from China in the first half of 2019 alone was N1.9 trillion.

China accounts for a quarter of Nigeria’s import. In the first half of 2019, the Nigeria’s import from China rose by 88% in the first half of 2019.

The spread of the coronavirus has placed over 150 million Chinese on travel restrictions, consequently production has slowed down.