Nigerian B2B e-commerce startup Alerzo is liquidating its supply property, together with buses, bikes, and operational autos, because it grapples with a multibillion-naira debt owed to Moniepoint Microfinance {Bank}.
Movies of the corporate’s facility in Ibadan, full of dusty Alerzo-branded supply bikes and buses, hit social media on Thursday with a background voice urging consumers to return and purchase as many as wanted.
The asset disposal follows a Federal Excessive Court docket order in Lagos that froze the corporate’s accounts and property after it defaulted on a N5 billion mortgage obtained in January 2025 to fund working capital wants.
As of December 2025, the excellent debt stood at N4.38 billion, with curiosity persevering with to build up.
Whereas the corporate has but to concern any official assertion, sources near the corporate blamed Alerzo’s enterprise collapse on the tough {economic} circumstances within the nation.
Dealing with mounting {financial} strain, Alerzo was stated to have turned to Moniepoint in early 2025 for emergency funding.
The N5 billion mortgage was meant to stabilise operations and maintain stock provide to retailers.
However inside months, reimbursement challenges emerged, highlighting the delicate economics of high-volume, low-margin distribution companies, significantly in periods of macroeconomic volatility.
Nonetheless, the corporate’s CEO, Adewale Opaleye, clarified that the corporate is just promoting scraps and never its working autos. He added that the corporate at the moment has over 400 autos which can be nonetheless in operation.
In keeping with him, the sale of the autos has nothing to do with the Moiniepoint debt concern.
In January this 12 months, the Federal Excessive Court docket in Lagos granted Moniepoint Microfinance Bank Restricted, a Mareva injunction in opposition to Alerzo Restricted and its associates, restraining {financial} establishments from releasing funds linked to the Defendants pending the decision of the debt.
The {Bank} additional alleged difficulties in serving courtroom processes on the guarantors, noting that they had been inaccessible at their identified addresses. The fifth Defendant, Alerzo PTE Restricted, was traced to Singapore, requiring go away of courtroom for substituted service by courier.
Based as a fast-growing B2B commerce platform, Alerzo constructed a distribution community that equipped stock on to neighbourhood retailers, bypassing conventional wholesalers. The mannequin promised decrease costs, sooner supply, and improved effectivity for small outlets.
At its peak, the corporate raised about $20 million in funding and expanded throughout Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, and different states in Southwest Nigeria, using a whole lot of employees.
Nonetheless, the capital-intensive nature of logistics started to pressure funds.
By 2023, the corporate had initiated layoffs because it struggled with rising working prices, together with car upkeep, gasoline, driver salaries, and warehousing bills in a low-margin sector.
Alerzo’s difficulties replicate broader challenges going through Nigerian startups that expanded quickly through the 2020–2022 enterprise funding increase however have since struggled amid tighter capital markets and rising prices.
The corporate cited compliance points and the gradual adoption of digital wallets in Nigeria as key causes for the closure. Thepeer had raised a $2.1 million seed spherical in June 2022.
Observe: This text has been up to date to incorporate clarifications on the asset gross sales by the founder and CEO of Alerzo, Adewale Opaleye.
