Last updated: September 2026
Please read this page before relying on anything you find on olusholaawode.com (this “site”). It is written in plain English on purpose. By using the site you agree to it.
1. This site is education, not advice
Everything on this site, including the essays, the toolkits, the checklists, the glossary and the calculators, is general information written to help people understand logistics, freight forwarding and international trade. It is not legal, tax, customs, financial, insurance or professional advice for your specific situation, and it does not replace the advice of a licensed customs broker, a lawyer, an accountant, your bank or the relevant government agency. Reading this site does not create a client, adviser or contractual relationship between you and me.
2. Rules and charges change
Customs duty rates, government levies, exchange rates, port and shipping-line charges, prohibition lists and trade regulations change often, in Nigeria and everywhere else. I try to keep the site current, but I cannot promise that any figure, rate, list or procedure is accurate, complete or up to date on the day you read it. Always confirm the current position with the official source before acting: for Nigerian imports, that means the Nigeria Customs Service, your bank, your licensed clearing agent and any regulatory agency involved with your goods.
3. The calculators give estimates, not bills
Tools such as the Customs Duty Calculator, the Landed Cost Calculator, the Demurrage and Storage Clock, the Shipment Profit Calculator, the CBM and chargeable weight calculators and the container fit checker apply a standard, published method of computation to the numbers you type in. They produce an estimate. Your actual bill can be different if customs classifies your goods under a different code, values them differently from your invoice, or if your product carries special charges, exemptions or additional agency fees. The tools run in your own browser; I cannot see what you type, and I cannot check it for you. The only figures that count are the official assessment documents issued to you.
4. The Quotation Issuer: the document is yours, and so is the responsibility
The quotation tool on this site is a formatting tool. It takes numbers you type in and lays them out as a professional quotation carrying your own company name and logo. Please be clear about what that means.
- The quotation is your document, not mine. You own it. I claim no rights over it, no copyright in it and no interest in it of any kind. What you do with it is entirely your business.
- I am not a party to it. I am not the issuer, the seller, the agent, the broker, the guarantor or the intermediary. If you send a quotation to a client and a contract follows, that contract is between you and them. I am not in it, and I have no obligation, liability or involvement arising from it.
- Every figure on it is yours. The tool supplies no rates. It does not check, verify, benchmark, source, approve or endorse any price, charge, exchange rate, margin or term you enter. It performs arithmetic on the numbers you give it. If a number is wrong, it is wrong because it was typed that way.
- Nothing you type reaches me. The tool runs entirely in your browser. Your rates, your client’s name, your margins and your logo are never sent to me, never stored on any server and never seen by anyone but you. This also means I cannot recover a quotation for you, produce a copy of one, or confirm to anybody that one was ever created.
- You are responsible for whether it is lawful and correct. That includes the accuracy of the prices, the tax treatment, whether the layout satisfies any invoicing or record-keeping rule that applies to you, your own terms and conditions, your company registration details, and your right to use the logo you upload. Requirements differ by country and by industry, and I make no promise that a document produced here satisfies any of them.
- Use it honestly. Do not use the tool to issue a quotation in the name of a company you are not authorised to represent, to imitate another business, or to produce a document intended to mislead anybody. That is a misuse of the tool, not a use of it.
- The credit line means nothing about you. Quotations produced here carry a small line noting the tool that formatted them. It identifies the tool. It is not a certification, an endorsement, a verification, an approval or a recommendation of the company issuing the quotation, of its prices, or of its ability to perform the work. Nobody receiving such a document should treat that line as any form of assurance from me, because it is not one.
If you receive a quotation formatted with this tool and want to know whether the company behind it is genuine, that is a question for the company, its regulator and your own checks. I have no knowledge of it and no record of it.
5. The prohibition and permit checker
The “Can I even import this?” tool matches the words you type against lists compiled from published government sources on the date shown on the page. It is a prompt to check, not a customs ruling and not clearance to import.
Two things matter especially. First, these lists change with government policy, sometimes announced in a budget speech and sometimes by circular, and where sources genuinely disagree the page says so rather than pretending to be certain. Second, “nothing found” is not permission. Prohibition and permit requirements attach to tariff codes and to the specific nature of goods, not to the words a visitor types, so an item can be restricted even where the tool finds nothing. Confirm with the Nigeria Customs Service, the relevant agency or a licensed customs agent before you commit money.
6. Procedure and regulatory pages
Pages describing procedures, such as Temporary Admission and working in the oil and gas sector, set out the general shape of a process and the documents usually involved. They are a map, not a permit. Requirements vary by command, by agency, by project and by the particular facts of your case, agencies revise their requirements, and officers exercise discretion the site cannot predict. Nothing on those pages guarantees any approval, timeline, outcome or cost, and none of it should be used in place of instructions from the agency itself or from a licensed professional handling your matter.
7. The views are mine alone
The opinions on this site are my own personal views, formed over more than a decade of working with freight forwarders, agents, carriers, importers and exporters across many companies and countries. They are published in my personal capacity. They do not represent, and must not be attributed to, any employer, client, partner, principal or professional body I am or have been connected with. No employer or client has reviewed, approved or endorsed anything here, nothing here is published on their behalf or with their authority, and nothing here draws on any confidential information belonging to them.
8. Examples are anonymised
Shipments, documents, quotations and figures used as examples are anonymised, simplified, combined from several sources, or altered so that no company’s or person’s confidential information is disclosed. Any resemblance between an example on this site and the actual commercial information of a specific company, client or individual is coincidental. If you believe something on this site identifies you or your business, please email me and I will review it promptly.
9. Organisations named on this site
Government agencies, regulators, professional bodies, carriers, terminals and software products are named only to identify them and to help you find the right authority. Naming an organisation does not mean it is connected with this site, has approved anything on it, or has any involvement in it. All names, marks and logos belong to their owners. I have no affiliation with any of them unless a page says so plainly.
10. Professional designations
References to my qualifications (Chartered Master of Logistics Management, Full Member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Supply Chain Management, Certified International Trade Logistics Specialist (CITLS) and others) describe my personal professional standing. They do not mean that any institute has reviewed, approved or endorsed the content of this site.
11. Links, tools and third parties
The site links to other websites and may embed content from services such as LinkedIn or YouTube. I do not control those sites and I am not responsible for their content, accuracy or privacy practices. A link is not an endorsement. This site carries no advertising and, unless clearly stated on the page, no paid or affiliate recommendations.
12. No guarantee of results
Where I describe methods, templates or ways of working, they are what has worked in situations I have seen. They may not suit your business, your goods or your country. Testing anything against your own circumstances, ideally with a qualified professional, is your responsibility.
13. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent the law allows, I accept no liability for any loss, cost, penalty, delay, demurrage, storage charge, seizure, fine, lost profit, lost business or damage of any kind arising from your use of, or reliance on, this site or anything on it. That includes errors or omissions in the content, the results of any calculator, the output of the quotation tool, and any document you create with it or send to anybody else. The site and its tools are provided free and “as is”, with no warranty of any kind. If you do not accept this, please do not rely on the site for decisions.
Nothing here limits liability where the law does not allow it to be limited.
14. If your use of a tool causes a problem for someone else
If you use anything on this site, and the quotation tool in particular, in a way that breaks the law, misleads somebody, infringes another person’s rights or breaches these terms, and I face a claim, a complaint or a cost as a result, you agree to cover me for it. Put simply: I give you the tools freely and in good faith, and what you produce with them is your responsibility, not mine.
15. Copyright and reuse
Unless otherwise stated, the writing, tools and design on this site are © Olushola Awode. You are welcome to quote short extracts with a clear credit and a link back. Please ask before republishing whole articles, checklists or tools, and please do not present them as your own. Documents you generate with the tools are excepted: those are yours outright, and you owe me no credit, no fee and no permission to use them commercially.
16. Which law applies
This disclaimer is governed by the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Nigerian courts have jurisdiction over any dispute arising from it or from your use of this site.
17. Changes
I may update this disclaimer at any time, and I will as the site grows. The date at the top tells you when it last changed.
18. Contact
Questions, corrections or concerns about anything on this site: email olusholaawode@gmail.com. Corrections are genuinely welcome. A tool that is wrong is worse than no tool at all, so please do tell me.