Used products’ market common in Nigeria, rare in Taiwan – survey

When Chigozie and Bola were heading to Taipei in Taiwan recently for a business trip for the first time, part of their intention was to buy some second- hand products like clothes and some gadgets among other things for personal use and for families, believing the products will be cheaper in Taiwan.

Heading from Bang Kok to Taipei, they decided to ask the leader of their delegation, Aaron Hsu who is a Taiwanese on how they can access used products market otherwise called Tokunbo market in Nigeria.

To them, this type of market should be common everywhere as it is in Nigeria. Almost every market, street and corners in Nigeria there are fairly used products from various European and Western countries on display for sale.

The products ranging from cars, to clothes, even under-wears, shoes, to utensils and electronics are relatively perceived to be cheaper abroad compared to first hand products called ‘tear rubber’ in common palance in Nigeria.

Chigozie and Bola were surprised when Aaron told them that such market does not exist in Taiwan. Bola quickly chipped in: ‘I don’t believe it’. Aaron insists that such physical market does not exist in Taiwan, explaining that Taiwan consumers buy new things and if they don’t want the product again, they discard. He said they can sell it by placing it through e-commerce for whoever that is interested in it. Alternatively, they donate it to charity organisations or destroy it.

“The fairly used product markets rarely exist in Taiwan physically, those that have such products to sell do so through the internet to direct buyers. The second-hand-product market is not popular in Taiwan”, Aaron said.

In Taiwan, Aaron said, there is no profit in selling second-hand materials as the profit is not big because there is no much demand for it.

“That is because, generally speaking, our nationals, don’t prefer second-hand products, especially when they are resourceful enough to buy brand-new products”, Aaron said enthusing about Taiwan rich economy with a population of 24 million and GDP of $ 884 billion.

Some Taiwanese in the aircraft from BangKok to Taipei also showed lack of knowledge about second-hand market in Taiwan. But in Simending market, an outskirt of Taipei, a seller brought out a second-hand Samsung phone for sale. When asked whether there are other ones available, he said ‘no’.

On how low class population Taiwanese who cannot afford brand new products manage in the economy, Aaron said the government supports them a lot.

In Nigeria, purchase of second-hand products have assisted people to keep pace with life. Purchase of second hand products is common. The Value of second products market is said to be about $18.8 billion, according to statistics quoted by Google research and this is expected to grow exponentially in the next five years.

The fairly used product was originally called ‘Okirika’ because it involved more of clothing. Today, Tokunbo has assumed a central name for the market as other items are perhaps integrated in the market.

But Aaron Hsu who is First Secretary of Taiwan Trade Mission in Nigeria attributed the booming of such fairly used market today to low production capacity.

According to him, economies like Nigeria don’t have local production enough to meet local demand. “You have to import many things and raw materials from other countries for production before bringing them into Nigerian markets, which means, of course, there are tariffs, there are costs of transportation, which makes the brand-new products in Nigeria very expensive”, and in many cases unaffordable by a lot of citizens.

Unaffordability of many products by a lot of Nigerians is also driven by high cost of living conditions, forcing consumers, especially the low and mid income earners to seek tokunbo products against new products.

According to analysts, Nigeria is rated among top importers of used products in Africa.