Business Process Consultant, Nigeria

Confirming payment before goods leave the depot

In many Nigerian trading and distribution businesses, customers pay before collection or delivery. They pay into one of several company bank accounts, by transfer, at a branch or through a POS terminal, and then send proof by message. Someone confirms it, and the depot releases goods. That confirmation step is where most disputes and losses start.

I map the full order to cash routine around it and agree answers to the questions that matter:

• Accepted evidence: what counts as confirmed payment. A screenshot from the customer is not the same as the credit on the company's own statement.
• Who confirms: which finance role checks the bank, for which accounts, and how depots receive that confirmation.
• Speed: how the routine keeps up with busy periods without tempting depots to release on trust.
• Exceptions: who may authorize release before confirmation, for which customers and up to what amount, and how that is recorded.
• Credit customers: who sets and reviews credit limits for distributors, and what happens when a limit is exceeded.

Separating the people who confirm payments from the people who release goods is often the single most useful control in the design. The routine then becomes the basis for reconciliation work and, later, for automation described on my business automation page for Nigeria.

Placing VAT and withholding tax steps in daily work

VAT and withholding tax affect ordinary transactions every day, but in many companies they are handled at month-end by finance alone. Errors made earlier, such as a missing tax identification number or a customer deduction recorded as a bad debt, are then expensive to unwind. Which rules apply to which transactions is for your tax advisor to confirm; my work is placing the steps correctly in the process.

On the sales side, I map:

• Which customer details are collected at onboarding so invoices carry what your advisor says they need.
• How a short payment caused by a customer's withholding deduction is recognized against the right invoice.
• Who follows up the evidence of deduction, so the credit can be supported, and where it is filed.

On the purchasing side, I map:

• Who decides whether withholding applies to a supplier payment, and on what basis.
• Who calculates the deduction, who prepares the remittance and who provides evidence to the supplier.
• How input VAT on supplier invoices is checked before it is claimed.

The tax authority has been rolling out electronic invoicing and the details keep developing, so your advisor tells you what applies. A clean process with complete customer data at the start makes any later change far easier. Requirement detail for a future system sits on my ERP business analyst page for Nigeria.

Foreign exchange requests and approvals

For Nigerian importers, manufacturers and service companies with foreign suppliers, foreign exchange is a process, not just a rate. Requests come from purchasing, operations or management; funds are sourced through banks or other channels; payments are made; documentation is kept. When this happens through phone calls and messages, directors later struggle to explain which rate was used and who agreed to it.

I design an FX routine with finance and management that covers the full path:

1. Request: who may raise a foreign currency need, with the supplier, amount, due date and business reason.
2. Approval: who approves at which amounts, and when a director must sign off.
3. Sourcing: who obtains quotes, how they are recorded and who chooses among them.
4. Execution: who instructs the bank and who confirms the transaction, kept as separate roles.
5. Documentation: which supporting documents are filed with each purchase, as your bank and advisors require.
6. Recording: how the rate actually achieved is entered, so the accounts reflect the real cost.

Regulatory requirements for foreign exchange transactions are set by the authorities and your bank, and they change; the process records who checks current requirements rather than freezing them in a document. My ERP consultant page for Nigeria explains how this feeds currency handling in a system.

Fallback routines for power and network failures

Every Nigerian business plans around unreliable power and connectivity, but few have written down what staff should do when systems are unavailable. Each depot or branch improvises differently, and the catch-up afterwards introduces errors and gaps.

I treat continuity as part of process design rather than an IT issue. For each critical flow, the target process includes a fallback:

• Sales and dispatch: a pre-numbered manual form or an offline record for orders and deliveries, with the same details the system would capture.
• Payment confirmation: who may confirm payments by phone with the bank or head office, and what is recorded until systems return.
• Stock movements: how receipts and transfers are logged on paper and who signs them.
• Authorization: who may approve fallback mode and for how long, so it does not become the normal way of working.
• Catch-up: who enters the backlog when systems return, in which order, and who checks that every manual document is accounted for.

These routines are short, printed where they are needed and practiced occasionally. They reduce the risk of lost sales records and make reconciliations after an outage manageable. Technical resilience, such as hosting choices or offline-capable apps, is decided later, after the routine has been agreed. The multi-currency and other solution pages describe related system considerations.

Approval limits, ownership and the step to software

Process changes in Nigerian companies stick when authority is clear. I draft an approval matrix covering purchases, supplier payments, FX requests, credit limits, price changes, write-offs and changes to bank details, with limits by role and named alternates for travelling managers. Management agrees it, and the auditor can comment on controls.

Each flow gets an owner: a manager who has the authority to enforce the routine and an interest in it working. That person keeps procedures current, approves changes and resolves disputes between departments. Without an owner, the best design drifts back to improvisation within months.

Documents are deliberately short: a map per flow, the approval matrix, role-based procedures of a page or two and printed fallback cards for depots. Everything is in English, and your staff can turn quick guides into other languages where depot or field staff would find that easier.

Software comes last. The gap list separates three kinds of fix:

• discipline, where the agreed routine simply needs to be followed;
• configuration, where current tools can enforce the rule;
• new capability, where automation, integration or a new system is needed.

When the third category is large enough, the routines become the brief for selection. The Nigeria overview lists the ways I support Nigerian companies remotely, and the wider method is explained under ERP process mapping.