By Ope Adeoye
If you run a school, a clinic, a co-operative, or a service business in Nigeria, you know the pattern. You deliver value now, then spend days or weeks chasing the cash that keeps the doors open. Some customers pay instantly. Others pay after reminders. Too many pay long after you have covered the cost of delivery. That gap between earned revenue and received cash is where small businesses suffocate.
This is not a side story. MSMEs account for the overwhelming share of Nigerian businesses and a very large share of employment and GDP. When late payments lock up working capital, owners borrow to meet payroll, push back inventory purchases, and miss opportunities because cash is trapped in limbo. For a school proprietor, that might mean delaying teacher salaries or postponing repairs. For a clinic, it might mean stretching medicine stock. For a co-op, it slows the lending cycle that members depend on.
The national payments landscape shows a different picture. Nigerians have embraced digital rails for everyday value exchange. Instant transfers and other e-payment instruments now carry large volumes each year. Card acceptance is wider, bank apps are better, and many merchants already take digital payments. Willingness and tools exist. The problem, for recurring obligations, is not whether customers can pay. The problem is whether they do so on time and without constant human follow-up.
When late payments lock up working capital, owners borrow to meet payroll, push back inventory purchases, and miss opportunities because cash is trapped in limbo.
Recurring payments often behave like yesterday. An invoice goes out, a WhatsApp reminder follows, then a second and a third. Parents promise to transfer fees next week. Members say they will renew dues when they get paid. Owners carry the administrative load and the emotional burden. It is fragile by design because memory fails and monthly liquidity swings. Teams spend hours babysitting receivables instead of serving customers.
Nigeria already has the plumbing to make recurring payments act differently. Under the Central Bank framework and NIBSS infrastructure, a customer can give consent for a defined amount and a defined schedule. With a direct debit mandate in place, the system moves funds on due dates and records a clear trail. The rules require consent, auditability, reminders, and recourse. The rails are not new. They are simply under-used by many consumer-facing SMEs.
Move fee collection or dues from chase to consent and the picture changes. Parents approve once, then pay in predictable instalments. Co-op members stay current without monthly nudges. Businesses gain a rhythm that matches payroll and supplier cycles. Reminders do not disappear, they shift to helpful notifications before each debit. Administration shrinks. Relationships improve because owners stop playing debt collector and return to the role customers value them for.
Recurring payments often behave like yesterday. An invoice goes out, a WhatsApp reminder follows, then a second and a third.
If the rails exist, why is adoption uneven? Three reasons recur in field conversations. First, onboarding can feel complex if the mandate screens are clunky or unfamiliar. Second, trust requires transparency. People want clear pre-debit alerts and easy pause or cancel options. Third, operators need tools that plug into everyday workflows. Reconciliation should be automatic. Notifications should be instant. Staff should not need a separate spreadsheet to keep up.
That is the gap we have focused on at OnePipe. We built PaywithAccount to help schools and similar SMEs set up those consents cleanly and collect on schedule through Nigeria’s regulated direct debit system. The idea is simple. Customers grant permission in plain language. On due dates, funds move from bank accounts to the business account through the trusted rails many Nigerians already use for transfers. For the operator, the benefits are practical. Cash becomes predictable. Admin becomes lighter. Reconciliation becomes faster. For the customer, control and clarity remain in place.
Relationships improve because owners stop playing debt collector and return to the role customers value them for.
None of this suggests that late payments will vanish overnight. It does suggest that a country which has already shifted a huge share of commerce to digital can move a bigger share of recurring obligations from manual to the mandated. The change starts with design. Pick a pilot segment such as returning families who already pay in parts. Offer instalments with clear reminders and a visible stop switch. Measure the day’s sales outstanding before and after one term. Share results with parents and stakeholders. Scale steadily.
There is also a role for associations and ecosystem players. School owner groups and co-ops can issue model templates that standardise consent language. Banks and processors can keep smoothing the mandate user experience and dispute handling. The media can highlight practices that keep children in class and keep small businesses solvent. Policymakers can amplify the message that on-time payment is not only a private matter. It protects jobs, keeps services stable, and reduces friction across the local economy.
Predictable revenue is oxygen. When it flows on time, owners plan. When owners plan, teams perform. When teams perform, communities thrive. That is a change worth making this term.
*** Ope Adeoye is the Founder of OnePipe
