Adventure at the Kaduna @DHLAfrica office! I came here to mail some sample tomato mix to my equipment supplier in Italy. They want to see how the end product looks to make sure their packaging line can meet our needs. Also want to measure viscosity and examine sacheting material.
I get here and I have like 4.5kg of product. Challenge #1: Italy apparently requires permission from the Italian ministry of health before they can import food items. I call my equipment supplier. He calls his local DHL office in Parma. 30 minutes pass by...
Eventually we learn that if I sign a declaration form stating that the products are for testing, nor consumption, we will be able to proceed. My contact emails me the form. I forward the form to the DHL guy here in Kaduna. We print it but then notice a problem.
The form has to be printed on company letterhead! I do t have my laptop with me but I WhatsApp someone at the office and ask him if he can paste the information from the declaration form on our letterhead and send back to me. He does. Great!
Except, he forgot to include this one part of the declaration form: the declaration statement! So now the DHL guy is going back to the original email that I sent him and inserting that language back into the version of the letter that is on TJ letterhead. Shout out to Seun! 👏🏾👏🏾
Challenge #2: payment. It’s hella expensive to send 5kg of anything internationally from Nigeria (if yo include the weight of the packaging, it adds up to 5kg even though the product itself is 4.5kg). This consignment costs 90k to send! I have my debit card but POS no work.
Fortunately, the same guy at the office can issue a transfer, so I send him the invoice and account details on WhatsApp and he makes the transfer. Shout out Fori for your quick assistance! 👏🏾👏🏾
So thanks to technology (email, WhatsApp and online banking) and the ingenuity and problem solving skills of 2.5 people (I’m not sure how much I really contributed), my package is now on its way! And it only took me 2 hours and change to get this done 😅.
PS bonus: I found out what “cumulation” means. #neverstoplearning
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