An international e-Commerce company with operations already running in the United Kingdom, the United States and other developed economies has formally entered the Nigerian market.
TraDap held its launch event in Abuja last Friday, using the occasion to announce a partnership with EscrowLock, the major buyer and seller protection escrow service in Nigeria, and to lay out plans that it says will create thousands of jobs while opening flexible, phone based income opportunities for young Nigerians.
The company disclosed that its entry into Nigeria followed an investment of 2.5 million United States dollars. Stakeholders from across Nigeria’s eCommerce sector were present at the Abuja event.
Company Explains Its Reasons for Choosing Nigeria
TraDap Nigeria‘s Managing Director, Richard Bennett, told attendees that Nigeria’s standing as a major African economy shaped the company’s decision to expand into the country. He described Nigerian youth as talented and hardworking, adding that they are frequently denied the kind of opportunities available to their peers in Western countries, a gap he said TraDap intends to help close.
Income Opportunities for Nigerian Youths
Beyond direct hiring, Bennett explained that TraDap Nigeria will open up a commission based advertising arrangement, allowing young Nigerians to promote vendor products listed on the platform and earn a percentage on every sale that results from their efforts. He said this is now one of the platform’s core expectations for vendors.
According to Bennett, the arrangement is designed to redirect advertising spending that vendors would otherwise hand over to social media platforms, spending that does not guarantee any sales in return. Instead, vendors pay Nigerian youths who help move products, whether through offline or online promotion.
In his own words, “One of our major objectives here in Nigeria is to help the economy grow by providing as much income earning opportunity as possible for the youths. We know that there’s very high unemployment, so we feel the moral responsibility to help in our own little way to tackle that, rather than just focusing on making money and going away.
You could see vendors on our platform spending millions of Naira every day on running ads on Meta and other social media channels, which does not guarantee sales all the time.
Why not share a bit of that with the youths and help improve the economy. Engage the youths to help you publicize your products, whether offline or online, they could use their phones and handle that part time, from their homes. And when they bring in a sale, you pay them the money you would have paid the social media companies for adverts. This is even a no risk strategy and presents a win win situation for both the vendors and the Nigerians.”
Interested Nigerians, including students, unemployed youths and teenagers, can apply through TraDap’s affiliate program page.
How TraDap and EscrowLock Plan to Protect Buyers
Margaret Whitmore, another TraDap representative, addressed the company’s approach to transaction security, explaining to newsmen that guarding against fraud and scams on both sides of a sale was central to the TraDap Nigeria’s design.
She said this protection rests on the partnership with EscrowLock, which is identified as Nigeria’s most trusted and widely accepted escrow payment provider. Under the arrangement, buyer payments for certain transactions go directly into EscrowLock’s account and stay there until the vendor confirms delivery of the product. For other types of transactions where TraDap’s bank accounts are used, the payments still do not get released to the seller until the buyer receives the goods purchased.
No Pay On Delivery, TraDap Says
Asked whether TraDap Nigeria sellers would offer pay on delivery, Whitmore said the platform will not support that model in any form.
She explained that TraDap’s protections extend to sellers as well as buyers. She described a common scenario where a buyer places an order after seeing a product on social media without actually having funds to pay for it, then becomes unreachable once the seller has already shipped the item, leaving the seller to absorb the delivery and return costs.
“Going with the pay on delivery model will expose sellers to this type of loss and will also make it more difficult for us to regulate the platform properly. So there will be no pay on delivery on TraDap. Any buyer who is serious will need to make a payment, but that payment will not be released to the seller until the buyer receives the product. This protects everyone,” she said.
TraDap Vows to Clamp Down on Counterfeit Goods
Thomas Harrison, a TraDap representative who travelled in from the United States for the launch, outlined the company’s stance on counterfeit products, stating that the platform will not tolerate them under any circumstance. He said sellers caught listing counterfeit items risk being permanently banned from TraDap Nigeria.
“If you want to sell Nike shoes, ensure they are truly Nike and not counterfeits bearing the Nike logo. Sellers must do due diligence to ensure they don’t sell patented or copyrighted materials, and they must explicitly declare the quality of every item they list on the platform to avoid issues that stem from false advertising,” Harrison said.
Frequently Asked Questions
