Inventory management for Nigerian distributors: fixing multi-warehouse drift

The multi-location problem

Nigerian distributors rarely hold stock in one place. There is the main Lagos warehouse, an upcountry depot, consignment stock sitting with sub-distributors and inventory riding around on route vans.

Counting these at different times produces four snapshots that never add up. The fix is one cut-off applied everywhere, even when that means counting on a Sunday.

Consignment stock needs its own line

Stock placed with a sub-distributor is still your exposure until it sells. Reporting it inside the warehouse balance hides both the risk and the true depot position.

We count and report consignment separately, so management can see how much working capital is sitting outside the building.

Valuation errors compound quickly

With naira volatility, a three percent quantity error on a large inventory becomes a very large misstatement in the management accounts. Accuracy in units is an accuracy problem in money.

What good looks like after the reset

One consolidated position, a clean item master shared by every depot, reorder levels set per location, and a weekly cycle-count routine that catches drift before it becomes a write-off.