Africa
A technology firm, Overloop, has called for stronger policy support to accelerate inventory digitisation among Nigeria’s Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
The Co-founder, Mr Princewill Mba, made the call at a news conference on Monday in Lagos.
Mba was also unveiling the firm’s retail operating system designed to help businesses manage inventory, sales, payments and accounting from a single platform.
He said that poor business data remained a major barrier to accessing finance and improving tax compliance.
The co-founder said that, while digital payment adoption had grown rapidly across Nigeria’s informal sector, many businesses still relied on manual record-keeping or fragmented software.
According to him, this limits their ability to generate credible financial records required by lenders.
‘’Many retailers make substantial revenues, but struggle to secure bank loans because they cannot provide reliable cash-flow statements and other financial records needed by financial institutions.
‘’Overloop is developed specifically for African business realities to generate bankable data that will enable SMEs to access financing, improve business planning and support long-term growth.
“The biggest barrier to growth anywhere in the world is technology adoption.
‘’You cannot improve access to finance without credible business data, and you cannot generate quality data without technology,” he said.
Mba urged government agencies and industry stakeholders to promote policies that encouraged inventory digitisation.
According to him, wider adoption of business management technology will improve tax compliance, strengthen financial inclusion and formalise the informal economy.
He said the company had been engaging policy stakeholders since 2023 and was ready to collaborate with government and business associations to deepen technology adoption among Nigerian enterprises.
Earlier, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, Mr Daniel Kilanko, said the platform integrated inventory management, payment verification, accounting, e-commerce and supply chain operations into a single ecosystem.
According to him, the ecosystem is accessible through web and mobile applications.
Kilanko, also the co-founder, said the platform’s Overloop Pay Protect feature verified every sales transaction against confirmed payments.
This, he said, reduced employee fraud and prevented merchants from losing revenue through unauthorised transfers.
He said that the company had embedded data protection measures, role-based access controls and international security certifications to safeguard sensitive business information, while simplifying software adoption for SMEs.
Kilanko also said that the firm would deploy smart retail terminals and an AI-powered online marketplace that synchronised physical and online inventories automatically.
He said those enabled businesses to manage multiple sales channels from one platform.
On her part, marketing expert and Overloop partner, Mrs Titilope Ejimagwa, said inventory fraud and employee theft remained major challenges for entrepreneurs.
Ejimagwa said, however, that digital inventory systems would improve transparency and accountability.
The expert described the platform as a practical solution capable of helping businesses reduce leakages, build credible financial records and become more attractive to lenders.
The company says it is also working with financial institutions to enable qualified merchants access credit within the Overloop ecosystem, using verified transaction histories and business performance data. (NAN)
A.I
July 20, 2026
Tags: Mr Daniel Kilanko Mr Princewill Mba