Walk into the back room of almost any retail SME in Nigeria, and you will find boxes of “dead stock”—items that were bought months or even years ago but never sold. Many business owners view this as a normal part of doing business. In reality, dead stock is cash that is trapped on a shelf, unable to be used for rent, salaries, or marketing.
Effective inventory management is the secret to unlocking that trapped cash.
1. Ditch the Paper Ledger for Software In 2026, relying on a physical notebook to track your goods is a recipe for errors. Free and low-cost inventory apps allow you to scan barcodes with your phone and track exactly what is leaving your store. When you know your numbers in real-time, you stop over-ordering items that don’t move.
2. Master the 80/20 Rule The Pareto Principle states that 80% of your profits usually come from just 20% of your products. Your job is to identify that 20%. These are your “fast movers.” Once you identify them, prioritize your capital to ensure these items never go out of stock.
3. Liquidate Ruthlessly If an item hasn’t sold in six months, it’s costing you money in storage space and tied-up capital. Run a clearance sale. Sell it at cost, or even at a slight loss. The goal isn’t profit on that item; the goal is recovering the cash so you can reinvest it into your fast-moving 20%.
If you need a cash injection to restock your fast movers while you liquidate the slow ones, a short-term working capital loan can bridge the gap.
