OLX and online trading in Nigeria

 I remember when I was looking to get myself a Blackberry Playbook, I got the product from OLX.It felt so good. Sam Okpala, a systems engineer, who lives in Ikeja, Lagos, had been trying to sell his Mercedes 220 for a while, but had had no luck. A neighbour advised him to try OLX instead. After placing his ad on the site, he began receiving calls from all over Nigeria.

 Within two weeks he sold the car to a buyer who contacted him via the ad he placed on OLX.

Kemi Omotosho, a business analyst, who also lives in Lagos, recently lost a lot of weight and while proud of this accomplishment, was left with a wardrobe of clothes she couldn’t wear. She was able to sell some of her clothes via OLX, giving her a much needed cash injection to buy some new clothes.


During the course of fulfilling the Abuja sale of a Peugeot 406, Ikechukwu Madu, the buyer, and Sajoh Musa Samaila, the seller, made a connection and became fast friends through the same platform.

The accounts above show online buying and selling is becoming quite popular in Nigeria, because it provides one with an economical and simple solution to all ones complications which are related to trade or shopping like buying, selling, trading, organising, discussing and meeting with individuals around and near you.

There is indeed a strong positive sentiment towards e-commerce in the country, at least amongst Nigeria’s more than 120 million active cell phone users and more than 56 million internet subscribers. Online sales grew 25 percent in 2011 to N62.4 billion, up an additional N12.5 billion from N49.9 billion in 2010.