How To Start A Sand Supply Business in Nigeria It is widely agreed that one of the most basic needs of man is shelter and in time past man has experienced with different material in order to meet with his housing needs. In modern day history, the use of cement along with sand and gravel as come to be accepted as one of the best construction raw material because they provide durability, firmness and can withstand harsh weather conditions though other materials like steel and glass are also used.
How To Start A Sand Supply Business in Nigeria
The ever increasing deficit in housing supply in Nigeria which is estimated at over sixteen million {16,000,000} units and the need for the construction of other important infrastructure if the country is to meet up with the vision 20:2020 project of becoming amongst the top 20 economies in the world by 2020 continues to drive the need to sand, an essential construction raw material and the need for the use of modern equipment in the production of sand, in order to meet with demands
Sharps sand are coastal and riverine areas. Niger delta areas like rivers, edo, delta have a stronhold of the business.Lagos enjoys the pride of place as the leading location for highest use of sand due to the massive road projects, the housing boom in Ibeju-Lekki peninsula,Badagry and other fast springing population and industrial centres. Sand is vital for human habit and survival, industrial and social development, and for meeting the consumption need of our rapidly growing population.
Investing in this treasure stove is sure to reap any willing entrepreneur huge returns on revenue. Let’s look at how to go about it.
Market Need
The first step in starting any business should be a detailed analysis of the intended market. Sand and gravel businesses thrive in areas of rapid development and new housing starts, as long as aggregate companies don’t already saturate the market. The best way to determine the feasibility of starting a new company is to find out what local sand and gravel companies are charging per ton for their aggregate and then compare that to the prices charged in nearby communities. If the cost in your community is substantially higher, there might be room for some competition in your area.
How To Start A Sand Supply Business in Nigeria
Start-Up Costs
Starting a full-service sand and gravel operation that quarries and crushes aggregate requires a substantial initial investment that could easily run into millions of naira, or more. Land acquisition, excavation, extraction, crushing, screening and washing equipment are necessary in addition to trucks for hauling the material. A delivery-only sand and gravel business has a lower start-up cost, which includes dump trucks to haul the aggregate and loaders to load the trucks. Dump trucks can run anywhere from N2,500,000 for a pre-owned model, to N15,000,000 for a brand new truck. Front-end loaders are comparable in price. Delivery-only companies can haul directly from the quarry to the customer, or can purchase large amounts of aggregate and store it at a local distribution site.
Licensing and Permits
Obtaining a permit to quarry can be a complicated process since the operation is similar to strip mining, which forever alters the properties of the land. State environmental management authorities regulate quarrying activities and the requirements necessary for obtaining a license. These might include paying a land reclamation bond, undergoing an environmental study, publishing a notice of intent in a community newspaper, filing a map of the intended quarry site with state and county authorities, as well as filing a plan showing how you intend to discharge process water and contain pollutants. Obtaining a permit for a delivery-only company is less involved.
How To Start A Sand Supply Business in Nigeria
Other requirements
To Successfully launch this business, you need to put the following things in place:
- You need to buy a carriage truck for conveying sand and stones from sources to clients. This may require you to have a good amount of capital. Source your funds from lending institutions like banks, your past savings, from the reasonable sales of your valuables, monetary gifts from people or borrow money from your family relations, friends and business colleagues. Buy the suitable ones and you are good to go.
- Make sure that all your relevant vehicle particulars are validly in place. Renew the expired ones. Register your truck with the relevant authorities, join truck associations operating within your area of operation, meet with other truck drivers, register with sand and stone sourcing sites and be eligible to do business with them.
- Brand your trucks with your unique business name and create a brand for your business.
- Drive the truck by yourself if you can or employ careful drivers to do so for you and pay them wages or salaries depending on the agreement you reach with them.
- Get supply offers from clients, supply them trips of sands and stones according to their demands and charge them profitable prices that will cover up your gas expenses, professional driving costs, carriage expenses, checkpoint fees, truck repairs and maintenance costs as well as other miscellaneous expenses associated with your business. This will help you to maximise the returns that you get from this business.
- Your potential customers includes builders, constructors, engineers, project managers, contractors, site overseers, individuals, household, government, companies, schools, erosion site managers, environmental management officers among others. Connect with them and have their contacts so that you will get periodic job offers from them.
- Repair and maintain your tucks from time to time so as to ensure that they remain in good condition for use at work. Lubricate the engines, change faulty parts and paint the scratched surfaces.
- Enlarge your customer base and always be in close touch and contact with them so as to get job offers from them whenever they are available.
- Save money with time and enlarge your business. Buy more trucks and you can even register your business as a company and embed your business name onto the bodies of your trucks. You can even hire or lease them out to contractors and make more money.
- Your job can take you to many locations, far and near. So be ready to travel widely, learn routes and know the road to many places.
- Study and know the prices of sands and stones as well as the best places to source the good ones at cheap prices.
- Be honest. Make your supplies according to the specifications of your clients. If you under-supply them either in quality of in quantity and they later find it out, you may be severely charged under the law or get a very bad reputation in the business. This will thus, throw you off balance, scare away customers from you and you will not make too much money again from the business.
- Charge your fees according to the distance you will travel or according to the weight and heaviness of the items that you will convey. The more distant the travel or the heavier the load, the greater your potential maintenance and running costs. And so, the bigger the charges so as to make sufficient profits whith which to compensate your efforts and maintain your facilities.
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