Landed Cost Calculator — Know Your True Cost Per Shipment

Landed cost is the complete, all-in cost of getting goods from a supplier's floor to your door — and it is the only number that tells you whether an import is actually profitable.

What counts as landed cost?

A landed cost calculation adds together every cost incurred on the way to your warehouse:

• Product cost — the supplier's price for the goods themselves
• Freight and insurance — sea or air shipping to the Nigerian port of entry
• Customs duty — charged on the customs value according to the goods' tariff classification
• Levies and surcharges — category-specific charges that apply to certain goods
• Import VAT — applied to the dutiable base, not just the invoice price
• Port and terminal charges — handling, storage and shipping-line fees
• Clearing agent fees — the professional cost of getting the shipment released

Divide that total by the number of units in the shipment and you have your true landed cost per unit — the figure your resale price must beat.

Why importers get landed cost wrong

The most common mistake is treating the supplier invoice as the cost of goods and adding a rough percentage "for clearing". Duty rates vary widely by tariff category, VAT compounds on top of duty, and port charges accrue per day once a container lands. A flat guess can be off by millions of naira on a single consignment.

How Porta calculates landed cost

Porta's ImportCost AI is a landed cost calculator built as a conversation. Describe the shipment — what it is, where it is coming from, its value and how it ships — and the AI identifies the likely HS code, applies the corresponding duty and levy treatment, adds VAT and realistic port and clearing costs, and returns an itemised breakdown in both dollars and naira. Give it your target resale price and it will tell you plainly whether the landed cost leaves room for margin.

Every figure is an indicative estimate for planning — final assessments are made by customs — but an itemised landed cost estimate before capital moves is the difference between pricing with confidence and hoping for the best.