Consumer Perception of Locally Designed Versus Imported Furniture in the Nigerian Middle-Class Market

The preference of Nigeria's growing middle class for imported furniture over locally designed and manufactured alternatives represents a significant challenge for the domestic furniture industry and a barrier to the development of a vibrant indigenous design sector. This study investigates the attitudinal and perceptual determinants of furniture purchasing decisions among middle-class consumers in Abuja and Lagos, comparing perceptions of locally designed and imported furniture across dimensions of quality, design sophistication, value for money, social status signalling, and after-sales reliability. A quantitative survey design administers a validated Consumer Preference Instrument to nine hundred and sixty middle-class households stratified by income and residential location. The instrument incorporates both stated preference measures and conjoint analysis tasks in which respondents make trade-off choices between locally and internationally attributed products with varying price, design quality, and provenance descriptions. Findings reveal that import preference is primarily driven by perceived quality superiority and social status signalling value rather than design aesthetic judgment, with a substantial proportion of respondents unable to correctly attribute product origin from product photographs alone when country-of-origin labels are removed. This suggests that the import preference gap is partially a perception gap rather than a genuine design quality gap. The study develops a Made in Nigeria Design Premium Strategy recommending certification, provenance storytelling, and retail environment improvements as mechanisms to overcome import preference bias. Recommendations target the Raw Materials Research and Development Council and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council. Keywords: consumer perception, furniture design, import preference, middle class, Nigeria.