Across Nigeria, thousands of hardworking entrepreneurs—from small school owners to gig economy riders—face a recurring challenge that’s as old as the hustle itself: chasing payments.
Despite delivering services on time and at scale, they are often left waiting days, sometimes weeks, to get paid. This delay isn’t just frustrating—it’s costly, demoralizing, and systemically harmful.
In a business environment already strained by inflation, fuel price volatility, and limited access to credit, late payments can break even the most resilient businesses.
It affects not just cash flow, but trust, planning, and the ability to grow. The stakes are especially high for cooperatives and service-based SMEs, many of whom rely on informal, manual systems to manage their finances.
Ope Adeoye, CEO of Nigerian fintech firm OnePipe, believes the solution lies in structure. Through their flagship product PaywithAccount, OnePipe is pioneering a payment system that gives Nigerian businesses more control, transparency, and dignity.
In this conversation, Ope talks about the roots of Nigeria’s payment culture crisis, its emotional and economic toll, and how businesses can take back control.
Let’s start with the everyday experience. Why is late payment such a big issue in Nigeria?
Ope Adeoye: It’s partly cultural and partly systemic. In Nigeria, business often happens through relationships—verbal commitments, trust, informal records. That’s a beautiful thing in some ways. But when it comes to payments, it creates a lot of gray areas. People think they’re doing you a favour by paying. There’s no urgency. And the problem is, you’ve already done the work—you’ve delivered the service, paid your staff, bought fuel, and now you’re waiting endlessly for the money.
This creates a vicious cycle. Small businesses start avoiding riskier customers or stop offering credit entirely. That affects their customer base and revenue. It becomes harder to grow. It also makes the business ecosystem more hostile—less trust, more micromanagement, more stress.
And that waiting comes with real cost, right?
Absolutely. Every hour spent chasing a payment is an hour lost from doing productive work. You’re calling, texting, sending WhatsApp reminders, following up again. It’s exhausting. It affects your cash flow, your energy, and even your relationships.
We’ve seen school administrators chasing parents, cooperative treasurers begging members, and artisans refusing new jobs because they haven’t been paid for the last one. That’s lost economic value right there. And it’s not just money—it’s morale. When you can’t plan your finances, it affects your confidence in taking on new opportunities.
Is this a new problem or has it worsened in recent years?
It’s not new, but the impact has gotten worse because of economic pressures. Inflation, rising fuel costs, and business uncertainty mean that small delays can have cascading effects. If someone doesn’t pay you on time, you might not be able to pay your own supplier or staff. It becomes a ripple effect.
Also, we’re in a more digital world now. Expectations are higher. People want things faster, but the backend systems for collecting payment haven’t kept up. That disconnect creates real operational tension for many small businesses.
What’s driving the shift toward structured payment tools like PaywithAccount?
We’re seeing a real hunger for order. People are tired of chaos. PaywithAccount is built to bring structure to these informal interactions. It lets businesses or cooperatives set up a payment mandate—essentially a permission from the customer to deduct funds directly from their account at a specific time or frequency.
It works like a standing order but is simpler and designed for our local context. You don’t need complex bank setups or expensive tech. A cooperative or small business can set it up with basic onboarding and immediately start seeing the benefits in how they operate and relate with customers.
What’s the adoption been like?
It’s been encouraging. We’ve seen cooperatives that used to spend days every month chasing dues now collecting 90% of their contributions on schedule. We’ve seen service providers—like caterers—who now set up mandates with their clients for milestone payments. They report better cash flow, less tension, and more respect from customers.
More importantly, they regain time—time to focus on the actual work of building their business. We’ve also seen that clients take them more seriously. There’s a perception shift when you introduce structure. It builds credibility.
But some people might see mandates as risky or intrusive. How do you address that?
That’s a fair concern. Trust is central. We make sure every mandate is user-authorized, clear, and revocable. The idea isn’t to trap anyone—it’s to protect both sides.
In fact, many clients actually prefer it. It takes away the need for awkward reminders or renegotiations. Everyone knows what’s coming. It reduces friction. And when there’s friction, people hesitate. So having a clear system builds peace of mind.
Why do you think this is resonating now?
Because people are tired. The hustle mentality is strong in Nigeria, but it comes at a cost. If you’re constantly working, chasing clients, borrowing short-term cash, you never get ahead.
Nigerians want to grow. They want to operate with dignity. Tools like PaywithAccount help with that—not by changing how we do business but by giving it more structure. It enables people to take themselves more seriously—and when that happens, others take them seriously too.
You mentioned cooperatives earlier. Why is this tool especially useful in that space?
Cooperatives are lifelines in this country. They’re how people save, access loans, or fund children’s school fees. But many of them still operate manually. We’ve worked with cooperatives where the treasurer keeps handwritten books and uses their personal account. That’s not scalable, and it’s open to error or fraud.
With PaywithAccount, they can collect dues digitally, get notified in real-time, and operate more like a micro-financial institution. It empowers them to formalize without losing their community feel. And that’s important—because the human connection is part of why cooperatives work.
What’s your vision for how this changes Nigerian business culture?
I want us to stop normalizing late payment. I want it to be seen as a business risk—because that’s what it is. If you can’t pay on time, you’re not being professional.
My hope is that more people start to use tools that introduce structure, whether it’s PaywithAccount or something else. The more we normalize timely payment, the more we enable SMEs to grow, plan, and hire. That’s how you build an economy from the ground up.
We often say we’re a nation of entrepreneurs. Let’s start behaving like one—serious, structured, and scalable.
Final thought—what would you say to a small business owner still unsure about all this?
I’d say: try it with just one client. Set up a mandate, see how it feels. Most times, the client even appreciates the structure. It shows you’re serious. You deserve to be paid on time. It’s not too much to ask.
Also, don’t think you have to be a big business to operate professionally. Start small, but build systems. That’s what sustains you when things get tough.
