For decades, Africa’s trade story has been told through its vast natural resources and untapped potential. The continent produces many of the world’s most sought-after commodities, yet much of the value created from those products has traditionally been captured elsewhere. Raw materials leave African shores, only to return as finished goods carrying significantly higher prices. It is a cycle that has limited industrial growth, constrained manufacturers, and left many businesses struggling to compete in global markets.
Tony Nwose believed the solution lay not merely in increasing exports but in rebuilding the infrastructure that supports trade itself. Speaking during an interview on Business Week on Arise News, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Niteon Inc. argued that Africa’s greatest trade challenge was not a shortage of products but the absence of integrated systems that connected manufacturers to markets, finance, and logistics.
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Nwose explained that Niteon was originally established as a digital export marketplace to connect Nigerian manufacturers with international buyers. While the platform successfully created market access, it soon exposed a more fundamental challenge. Manufacturers secured purchase orders but lacked the capital required to meet growing demand. Traditional commercial lending processes proved slow and often inaccessible, particularly for businesses with limited collateral. That experience prompted the company to expand beyond a marketplace into trade finance, creating what he described as a banking solution designed specifically for manufacturers.
Rather than replacing its marketplace, Niteon layered financial services onto the platform. Manufacturers could continue accessing global buyers while also obtaining invoice-backed financing to fulfil confirmed orders. According to Nwose, the objective was straightforward: allow manufacturers to concentrate on production while the platform handled market access and financing.
His entrepreneurial journey reflected both personal experience and professional insight. Nwose recalled growing up in an agricultural family, where his grandfather had exported cocoa to international markets. Despite supplying well-known chocolate manufacturers abroad, he observed that exporting raw commodities generated limited returns. Later, while studying in the United Kingdom and working at Google, he gained a different perspective on global supply chains and recognised that international buyers also struggled to access reliable African products. That experience convinced him to return to Nigeria with his co-founder to address the disconnect between African producers and global markets.
As the company evolved, its focus expanded beyond market access and finance. Nwose said Niteon had integrated logistics into its platform while developing proprietary artificial intelligence to coordinate the movement of goods, financing, and supplier relationships. He argued that solving Africa’s trade challenges required an infrastructure approach rather than isolated interventions, with technology serving as the link between every stage of the supply chain.
Beyond technology, Nwose pointed to manufacturing capacity as one of Africa’s most pressing constraints. He observed that many local producers understood domestic markets but lacked familiarity with international quality standards, certification requirements, documentation, and export procedures. Helping manufacturers meet those standards, he said, was essential to expanding Africa’s participation in global trade. Niteon had therefore focused on preparing suppliers for international markets while connecting them with buyers across the United States, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and South Asia.
Government policy also featured prominently in his assessment of Africa’s export landscape. Nwose acknowledged reforms aimed at encouraging value-added exports and reducing incentives for shipping raw commodities abroad. He pointed to policies that promoted local processing, arguing that converting agricultural products into finished or semi-processed goods significantly increased their commercial value before export.
He also suggested that financial institutions needed to rethink how they supported agricultural businesses. In his view, many banks continued to evaluate agricultural enterprises using conventional lending models that depended heavily on collateral. He argued that trade finance should instead be structured around verified purchase orders and transaction history, enabling manufacturers to obtain working capital based on confirmed commercial activity rather than fixed assets.
Addressing concerns about insecurity in parts of northern Nigeria, Nwose maintained that regions facing security challenges should not automatically be excluded from economic activity. Instead, he advocated working with agricultural aggregators in stable communities while expanding support for farming populations. He argued that strengthening livelihoods and restoring productive economic opportunities formed part of the broader response to insecurity and could help increase agricultural output over time.
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Technology, he added, would continue to shape the future of African agriculture and trade. From using geospatial data to improve farming decisions to deploying digital platforms that simplify cross-border transactions, Nwose said technology could reduce inefficiencies throughout the value chain. He also highlighted the company’s use of compressed natural gas-powered vehicles within its logistics operations as part of efforts to improve operational efficiency while reducing emissions.
Throughout the discussion, Nwose returned to one central idea: Africa’s trade future would depend less on producing more commodities and more on building the systems that enable those commodities to create greater value. Market access, finance, logistics, technology, and manufacturing capacity, he argued, should function as a single ecosystem rather than separate industries. It was this integrated approach, he suggested, that could help African manufacturers compete more effectively in global markets while retaining more value within the continent.
