Moving Office Equipment from Lagos to Abuja

The truck is in Abuja, the new office is open, and nobody can find the box with the router. Or the server rack cables. Or the keys to the filing cabinets, which are sitting in a drawer in Lagos. When you move an office hundreds of kilometres, you cannot just pop back for what you forgot.

Most of the work in an intercity office move happens before the truck is booked.

Build the inventory first

Everything else depends on knowing exactly what is moving. Walk the office room by room and list every desk, chair, cabinet, shelf, meeting table and whiteboard. Then make a separate list for IT and electrical equipment: laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, routers, switches, servers, UPS units and cables.

Note the size and rough weight of anything large.

Now decide what is not going. An intercity move is the right time to sell, donate or dispose of the broken chairs and the printer nobody has touched in years.

Give each major item an inventory number and put it on a shared sheet. Tick it off at loading and again at offloading. That sheet becomes the basis of your request and your checklist on both days.

Packing the IT equipment

Computers and network gear are usually the most valuable and most fragile part of an office move.

Before anything is unplugged

1. Back up all data. Keep the backup somewhere that is not travelling on the same vehicle, such as cloud storage or a drive one of your staff carries.
2. Photograph the cable setups for servers, network racks and workstations.
3. Shut everything down properly. Pulling the plug is not a shutdown.

Packing it

Use the original boxes for monitors, printers and servers if you still have them. Wrap screens in bubble wrap or foam and stand them upright in their boxes, and never put anything heavy on a screen.

Take out printer toner and ink cartridges where the manufacturer recommends it, and bag them so they cannot leak over everything else. Bag the cables for each workstation, label the bag and tape it to the matching computer box.

Laptops are best packed separately, and safer still in the hands of the staff who use them. UPS batteries stay upright. Follow the manufacturer's guidance for moving them.

Label for the new office

At the Abuja end, good labels save hours. Each box should show the department, the room or desk number at the new office, and a short note of what is inside. Something like "Finance, Desk 4, monitor and cables".

Use a different coloured tape for each department. Mark fragile boxes on several sides. Number every box and match it to your inventory sheet.

One truck or several trips?

Start with your inventory and how long the business can run without its equipment.

One truck works well when everything fits comfortably with room left for padding and straps, and you want the whole office to arrive together and set up in one go.

Split it into several trips when:

• the volume is too much for one vehicle
• you need the Lagos office to keep working while Abuja is being set up, so furniture goes first and IT goes last
• you want the fragile IT equipment kept away from heavy furniture

The Sphere app lists trucks at up to 27,000kg and pickup vans at up to 2,400kg, so match the vehicle to what you actually have. Our truck size guide helps you estimate.

Ready to move?

Book a truck or van on Sphere

Choose your vehicle, propose your price, and verified drivers in Lagos, Abuja accept or send a counter-offer.

Get Sphere on Android Get Sphere on iPhone Talk to our team

What never goes on the truck

Company registration documents, contracts and financial records travel with a trusted member of staff. Keys, access cards and passwords for the new office should already be with the receiving team. Backups of critical data stay separate from the hardware they came from. And a copy of the inventory sheet should be with someone at each end.

Have a team waiting in Abuja

An intercity move needs people at both ends. Before the truck arrives:

• Keys and access: the receiving team should have keys and building access sorted.
• Parking: confirm the loading bay or parking arrangement with building management.
• Floor plan: share it so boxes go straight to the right rooms.
• Checking in: tick items off the inventory as they come off the vehicle and note any damage on the spot.
• IT support: request a driver someone to reconnect the network and workstations as soon as the equipment lands.

Brief the driver on the long route

A driver looking at a Lagos to Abuja job needs more information than for a run across town. Give them enough and they can accept your price or send a realistic counter-offer.

Your request should include the exact pickup and drop-off addresses with landmarks, and the floors, lifts and loading access at both ends. Add the full inventory, with IT equipment and anything heavy or fragile called out. Say when you want to leave and how flexible you are, and who will meet the driver in Abuja and when. If you need loading and offloading help, agree it with the driver before you accept an offer.

Our Abuja to Lagos intercity checklist covers the same road in the other direction.

How to do this on Sphere

1. Open the Sphere app and choose a truck or pickup van based on your inventory.
2. Add your Lagos pickup and Abuja drop-off.
3. Describe the load and the route fully, including access at both ends.
4. Propose your price. Verified drivers accept it or send a counter-offer, and you choose.

See our Lagos office relocation page and our Abuja page for more.