For years, African small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have relied on retail platforms like AliExpress and more recently Temu to source low-cost goods from China without travelling. While these platforms opened up access, they were never built for business needs such as reliability, customisation, factory pricing, and quality assurance.
That gap has created space for Midddleman, a Nigerian tradetech startup helping African businesses source directly from Chinese manufacturers. The company offers a more dependable and cost-efficient pathway for cross-border procurement.
Nigeria–China trade reached $22.6 billion in 2023, with 80–90% of Nigeria’s imports from China being manufactured goods—machinery, electronics, vehicles, plastics, and steel. Nigerian importers heavily depend on Chinese factories, underscoring the vast opportunity Midddleman is stepping into.
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Midddleman’s story didn’t begin as a full-scale infrastructure solution. In 2018, fresh graduates Omolara Sanni and Adeola Owosho moved from Abeokuta to Lagos, bouncing between tech events while figuring out what to do next. Their introduction to China–Nigeria commerce came at a conference hosted by Akin Alabi, founder of Nairabet, where they learned about the booming buy-from-China market.
With less than ₦100,000 ($68.5), they placed their first order on Alibaba and launched small Instagram-based businesses selling skincare items, car accessories, home décor, and whatever else could turn a profit.
The biggest lesson wasn’t about product margins, it was about trust.
“People didn’t trust us enough to pay before delivery,” Sanni recalls. Deliveries outside Lagos were especially difficult, with many customers refusing pick-up or disappearing entirely. The losses made it clear that Nigerians needed a safer way to transact online.
In 2023, they attempted to solve this with an escrow platform also called Midddleman holding funds until buyers confirmed satisfaction. Technically, the product worked. Market-wise, it struggled. Vendors weren’t trusted, but neither was a new escrow brand without the resources to build credibility.
While this challenge persisted, another far bigger problem became impossible to ignore: paying Chinese suppliers had become extremely difficult.
A Pivot that Rewrote the Business
Around 2020, Nigerian Naira cards stopped working for dollar payments, disrupting imports. Sanni and Owosho switched to 1688, a Mandarin-only wholesale platform cheaper than Temu or AliExpress, and began using Alipay wallets to pay in yuan.
They soon realised thousands of SMEs faced the same issues.
Midddleman pivoted from escrow to a payment and procurement platform for business imports, unlocking the demand they had been searching for.
“Within days of announcing the pivot, people started paying through us,” Sanni says. Today, the startup claims it has processed nearly ₦2 billion ($1.37 million) in transaction volume.
The platform now serves businesses needing more than retail marketplaces can provide—direct factory access, language support for navigating 1688, quality checks, price negotiations, bulk order management, yuan payments, and reliable cross-border logistics from China to Nigeria.
“Temu is great for buying two shirts,” Sanni says. “Businesses can’t profit buying from Temu. They need factories, customisation, and quality assurance.”
Real-Time Quality Checks in Chinese Factories
Midddleman’s biggest differentiator is its on-ground procurement agents in China.
“For many importers, the fear is real; what if the supplier sends low-quality items?” Sanni says.
These agents enter factories, inspect materials, confirm the exact products ordered, negotiate pricing for bulk orders, consolidate goods from multiple suppliers, and repackage items to cut shipping costs. It’s an end-to-end infrastructure retail apps cannot match.
Arigbabu Adewale, CEO of Congent Paint, shared, “I’ve been using Midddleman for over a year… They are a reliable source for any service solution.”
Sanni also pushes back on the idea that China only produces low-quality goods.
“This is a misconception,” she says. “China gives you exactly what you pay for. The same factories supply the US and UK. If you want high quality, you’ll get high quality.”
AI: Turning Mandarin Marketplaces into English
Another major barrier Midddleman solves is language. 1688 is almost entirely in Mandarin, forcing African importers to rely on screenshots and Google Translate.
Midddleman built an AI sourcing assistant that changes this experience:
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Users paste a 1688 link into Midddleman
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The page is automatically translated into English
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Prices are converted to Naira
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An AI bot answers product-related questions, including shipping cost estimates
The feature is now so valuable that customers purchase AI credits to use it.
A $46,000 Startup Doing Nearly ₦2 Billion in Volume
Midddleman has raised just $46,000, largely from friends and family, yet has managed to process almost ₦2 billion in transactions. The founders credit community for helping them stay lean and focused.
After failed attempts outsourcing development, the team realised the product needed to be built in-house. Their CTO, Abiodun Arigbede, became central to building a scalable MVP designed for real users.
Although Africa is its strongest market today, the founders have bigger goals.
“Everybody buys from China,” Sanni says. “Not just Africans. We want to build a global platform—a billion-dollar company born in Africa.”
