For Ifeanyi Onwuachu, a freight company earns its keep when the goods arrive and the client is still in business afterwards. Container counts and delivery figures come second.

That approach led to the launch of Janksmay Global Services Limited in 2016, a clearing and logistics firm based at Airways Bus Stop in Apapa.

Onwuachu has now been recognised by two organisations. The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and the GOTNI Leadership Centre presented him with awards for youth development and entrepreneurial leadership. The students association named him an Icon of Societal Development.

Awards say little on their own. The more useful question is what Onwuachu does in Apapa every day and why he has chosen to build the business this way.

The loss that shaped a business

The answer starts with his father.

In a recent interview, Onwuachu said his father built a solid trading business and imported goods regularly for many years. Then he made one mistake. He chose the wrong clearing agency for an importation he saw as life-changing, and it cost him everything. A clearing agent handles customs and paperwork for an importer, so a poor choice can leave goods stuck at the port.

The loss stayed with the family. Years later, while working in terminal operations, Onwuachu began to understand what could have gone wrong with his father’s shipment. That experience became part of the reason he started Janksmay.

It also gave him a rule. Janksmay, he said, will “never knowingly allow any business to die in our hands”. Behind every shipment, he added, is someone’s livelihood and years of hard work.

Onwuachu studied chemical engineering at Anambra State University and began his career in terminal operations, where he saw first-hand how cargo moves through a port. That combination of engineering and dockside experience has shaped his approach to freight forwarding.

Building a logistics business on trust

Janksmay handles customs clearance and documentation, air, sea and land freight, warehousing, project cargo and supply chain management. It also gives compliance advice.

Its clients come from manufacturing, agriculture, automotive, textiles, fashion and fast-moving consumer goods, and the company says it works with everyone from small businesses to large enterprises.

For smaller importers, Janksmay has freight consolidation, often called groupage. It lets several businesses share one container rather than each paying for a full shipment. The company also lists a final quality control check before goods are shipped.

The company says it identified a gap in customer satisfaction and set out to address it. Its stated mission is to become a preferred logistics company for businesses in Nigeria and beyond, with a focus on safe and timely delivery, trust, open communication and solutions built around each client’s needs.

Onwuachu is clear about what can eat into a business’s margins. In the interview, he pointed to demurrage, wrong documentation and gaps in industry knowledge, and called for continuous training across the sector. Demurrage is the fee a shipping line charges when a container stays at the port beyond its free days.

He also warned businesses against choosing a freight or clearing quote simply because it is the cheapest. A low price, he said, can become expensive once delays and demurrage set in.

The scale behind the model

Janksmay connects Nigerian businesses to markets in more than 15 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Its operations are equipped to handle between 1,000 and 10,000 shipments a year, alongside the demands of its clients.

Trust was one of the hardest parts of the early years. Onwuachu said that people will not hand over their livelihood simply because a company says it can do the job.

Referrals matter in the industry, he said, and they come from integrity and consistent delivery.

He also acknowledged the people who backed the company at different stages and opened doors for it.

Pressure comes with the job. Onwuachu said the team tries not to panic when things go wrong. He puts the firm’s ability to deal with surprises down to its culture and systems, supported by the right people.

Beyond Apapa: The bigger logistics picture

Onwuachu’s views extend beyond his own firm. He said Nigeria’s goal of a $1 trillion economy by 2030 will require more than higher production. In his view, it will also depend on moving goods cheaply and reliably. He identified poor roads as one of the biggest barriers, pointing to the effect on fuel and maintenance costs and travel time. He also called for better links between seaports, rail and inland dry ports, and said spreading ports and logistics infrastructure to other regions would ease pressure on the major ports and roads.

On technology, he wants more automation in customs, documentation and payments. It can improve cargo tracking and communication between the parties involved in a trade, he said, but it cannot replace physical infrastructure. The aim should be to simplify trade and make it more transparent, not simply move red tape online.

He gave credit to some recent improvements, citing cargo scanning at Lekki Port and the Nigerian Ports Authority’s electronic truck call-up system. His concern is whether such systems will be sustained. Good ideas, he said, need discipline to maintain and improve them, along with consistent policy.

For regional trade, he pointed to the Lagos-Abidjan corridor and the Seme-Krake border as priorities if Nigeria wants to gain from the African Continental Free Trade Area. Agreements alone will not be enough, he said. Fiscal policy, infrastructure and border processes must make it easier for African businesses to trade with one another.

A decade of building trust

The awards from NANS and GOTNI gave Onwuachu a public moment. Ten years after founding Janksmay, he says the rule shaped by his father’s loss still guides how the company works, and that a client’s business should never die in its hands.