How Nigeria Can Reverse ₦587bn Procurement Losses 

Nigeria and other African economies risk losing billions each year unless they replace outdated procurement systems with transparent digital platforms, industry leaders have warned.

Fresh concerns emerged at the Digital Procurement Africa Summit 2026 in Lagos, organised by Gloopro, where policymakers, business executives, and supply chain experts examined how automation can curb leakages and strengthen governance.

The Cost of Manual Procurement

Experts revealed that Africa loses an estimated ₦587 billion annually due to contract inflation, corruption, weak vendor oversight, emergency purchases, and fragmented approval processes. Paper-based procurement, they argued, remains one of the biggest vulnerabilities in both public- and private-sector supply chains.

Isa Aliyushatta, President of the Association of Digital Financial Practitioners of Nigeria, stressed that manual procurement gaps are draining resources. He urged governments and large enterprises to adopt digital platforms capable of tracking spending, verifying suppliers, reducing human interference, and exposing hidden leakages.

Why Digitisation Matters

Stakeholders highlighted that digital procurement systems can:

• Centralise approvals and spending controls
• Automate bidding and vendor monitoring
• Provide clearer audit trails for accountability

Such systems, they said, make it easier to detect inflated contracts, repeated emergency purchases, and unapproved transactions.

Adenrele Thompson, Indirect Procurement Manager for Supply Chain at Coca-Cola HBC, noted that smaller transactions—often dismissed as insignificant “tail spend”- can become major governance risks if left untracked. Modern tools, he explained, now bring transparency and control to these overlooked purchases.

Chukwuma Nkwodinmah, Supply Chain Leader at Aradel Holdings, warned that unmanaged procurement practices expose organisations to financial, regulatory, and reputational risks. He cautioned that repeated emergency purchases outside approved systems often create parallel procurement structures with little transparency.

A Governance Imperative

Speakers emphasised that Africa’s procurement challenges are not merely operational but also economic and governance concerns. Digitisation, they argued, can help governments and companies save money, reduce fraud, improve supplier accountability, and build more reliable supply chains.