Guides
Importing guides for African buyers
Practical guides on the two questions that decide whether an import order goes well: can I trust this seller, and how do I actually get money to them? Written from what we see in the directory — thousands of public buyer comments across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn — and updated as the data changes.
Paying suppliers
How money actually reaches a Chinese supplier, what each route costs you in time and risk, and what to have ready before you send anything.
How to pay Chinese suppliers from Africa
Most African importers pay Chinese suppliers one of six ways: a bank wire, Alibaba Trade Assurance, a sourcing agent who pays on your behalf, an informal money changer, a friend or relative in China, or a direct CNY settlement service. Only the last two are fast and cheap at the same time — and only one of them leaves you a receipt.
8 min read · updated
CNY invoice settlement explained
Settling in CNY means the supplier is paid in yuan into their Chinese bank account, rather than receiving dollars they must then convert. It usually completes in about ten minutes, it removes the correspondent-bank deductions that make a SWIFT wire arrive short, and it fails almost exclusively for one reason: a beneficiary name that does not match the account.
6 min read · updated
Checking suppliers
What a sourcing agent does, how to corroborate one before you pay, and how to read the public signals that our Trust Signal is compiled from.
How to verify a China sourcing agent before you pay
Verifying a sourcing agent is mostly about corroboration, not credentials. An agent who is real leaves a footprint on more than one platform, invoices from a company account, and has buyers who talk about them by name in public. Seven checks below cover the failure patterns we see most in buyer comments.
9 min read · updated
Sourcing agent vs procurement agent vs buying direct on 1688
A sourcing agent finds you a supplier you do not have. A procurement agent buys from a supplier you have already chosen. Buying direct on 1688 removes both — and the quality control, consolidation and Chinese-language negotiation they were doing. Which is right depends on whether your problem is finding, buying, or price.
7 min read · updated
What the MoneyWave Trust Signal measures — and what it does not
The MoneyWave Trust Signal is a 1–5 score summarising how much public, corroborating evidence exists about a seller — not whether they are honest. It reads reach, recency, contactability, cross-platform corroboration and what buyers say in public comments. It is an observation, refreshed weekly, and never an endorsement.
6 min read · updated
TikTok supplier red flags: what account churn tells you
The clearest public warning sign on a TikTok supplier account is not a bad comment — it is a rename. An account that changes handle keeps its followers and sheds its history, which is exactly what someone with a bad run needs. Dormancy and a sudden pivot in what is being sold are the next two.
6 min read · updated
Start with the directory
Every guide here is built on the same corpus: 300+ vetted China–Africa sellers, each scored from public buyer comments and re-checked weekly.
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