Nigeria and its continental peers are frittering away an estimated N587 billion yearly to outdated, manual procurement systems that fuel corruption, contract inflation, and systemic leakages.

Stakeholders and tech experts warned that the continued reliance on paper-heavy processes remains the single greatest vulnerability within Africa’s public and private supply chains, crippling corporate growth and stalling national development.

This pressing financial crisis took centre stage at the just-concluded Digital Procurement Africa (DPA) Summit 2026, organised by Gloopro in Lagos.

The executive forum brought together policymakers, C-suite executives and supply chain leaders to confront the continent’s unstructured distribution channels and chart a decisive path toward full automation.

To plug the monumental fiscal holes, experts at the summit stressed that African enterprises must urgently transition from manual oversight to data-driven, unified digital frameworks.

By adopting modern procurement-as-a-service (PaaS) platforms and electronic bidding portals, organisations can effectively eliminate human interference, rein in unrated local vendors and transform procurement from a hotbed for financial leakage into a transparent tool for corporate governance.

While moderating one of the panel sessions with the topic: ‘The Hidden Leakage’ Audit: Exposing the True Cost of Manual Procurement’, President of the Association of Digital Financial Practitioners of Nigeria, Isa Aliyushatta, who revealed that Africa lost yearly, N587 billion to manual procurement, said efforts must be rechanneled to block the loopholes through digital systems.

He urged Africa’s large enterprises to adopt digital procurement platforms to tackle hidden spending leakages, supplier risk blind spots, and governance failures.

Speaking as a panellist, Indirect Procurement Manager for Supply Chain, Coca-Cola HBC, Adenrele Thompson, said many businesses historically treated small procurement transactions as too insignificant to monitor, creating major governance gaps over time.

Thompson noted that most organisations approve tail spend without going in-depth because the value looks small. “But today, we have systems that can provide transparency, governance, and due diligence around those transactions.”

Recommending improved use of technology, Thompson said procurement fragmentation that once seemed impossible to control can now be managed through digital tools that centralise approvals, vendor records, and spending data.

He compared the shift to how mobile apps transformed everyday consumer behaviour, while stating that procurement digitisation is becoming inevitable for enterprises operating in fast-moving markets.

“If you are not digital, it is just a matter of time,” he said. “The consequences are inevitable.”

On his part, Supply Chain Leader at Aradel Holdings, Chukwuma Nkwodinmah, warned that unmanaged procurement transactions expose organisations to financial, regulatory, and reputational risks.

Nkwodinmah explained that repeated emergency purchases outside approved procurement systems often create parallel procurement structures lacking transparency and effective accountability mechanisms.