The paperwork an importer asks for first

Most first-time exporters discover the documentation after the buyer has already agreed a price. It is the wrong order, and it costs a sailing.

A phytosanitary certificate is issued by the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service and attests that the consignment was inspected and found free of quarantine pests. It is consignment-specific. It cannot be issued retrospectively.

NAFDAC registration covers the product and the facility rather than the shipment. NEPC registration covers you as an exporter. The certificate of origin comes from the chamber of commerce and is what the importer files at their end.

We hold the first three continuously and arrange the fourth per consignment. A buyer asking for all of them is not being difficult — they are being audited by someone else.