Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, has launched the Nigeria edition of its cloud-based accounting platform, Zoho Books, as part of efforts to help businesses improve financial management and compliance.
The company also introduced Nigeria-specific editions of other applications within its finance and operations suite.
Vice President, Global Product Strategy and Alliances, Finance and Operations Business Unit at Zoho, Prashant Ganti, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
Ganti said the Nigeria edition of Zoho Books was designed to help businesses manage Value Added Tax (VAT) and e-invoicing requirements while providing greater visibility into their finances.
He said regulatory compliance and access to timely financial information were increasingly becoming important competitive factors for businesses operating in Nigeria.
According to him, the solutions would help reduce the manual work involved in VAT and e-invoicing processes while giving businesses access to real-time financial data.
Ganti explained that the Nigeria edition of Zoho Books automatically applies appropriate VAT rates based on the type of item and customer classification, while also supporting reverse-charge transactions.
The platform, he added, enables businesses to manage withholding tax for both resident and non-resident entities and generate VAT schedules in the format required by the TaxProMax portal.
Ganti also disclosed that a recent survey of more than 100 Nigerian small and medium-sized businesses showed that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for financial management remained relatively low.
He said only 24 per cent of the businesses surveyed currently used AI tools for financial management, while 65 per cent identified lack of awareness as the major obstacle to adoption.
Among businesses already using AI, he said, 30 per cent reported saving between one and three hours of work each week.
Ganti said Zoho’s AI platform, Zia, could assist businesses with tasks such as categorising bank transactions, retrieving financial information, forecasting trends and detecting unusual transactions.
He added that the Nigeria edition would also include Zoho’s billing, invoicing, commerce, inventory, spend, expense, procurement and practice applications.
According to him, integrating the various applications on a single platform would allow information to flow seamlessly between them, reducing duplicate data entry and improving overall financial management.
Ganti said Zoho’s finance and operations platform currently offers country-specific editions tailored to local tax and regulatory requirements across 16 markets.
