The Federal Government has inaugurated the Steering Committee for the National Digital Invoicing and Financial Optimisation Strategy (NDIFS), with Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Jumoke Oduwole, calling for the creation of a national corridor that can convert verified invoices into affordable working capital.
Oduwole said the strategy, approved by President Bola Tinubu, must go beyond digitising compliance to address the cash-flow challenges confronting businesses, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
“For many SMEs, the constraint is cash conversion. And when cash is trapped in receivables, production slows, inventories tighten, suppliers weaken, and export opportunities are lost,” she said.
The minister said the NDIFS should ultimately establish a “national receivables-finance corridor” through which verified invoices from exporters, manufacturers, agro-processors, fast-moving consumer goods value chains and eligible public-sector counterparties can be converted into transparent, regulated and affordable working capital.
According to her, the proposed corridor requires four interconnected components: a trusted digital rail for authentic invoices and validated transaction data; a sound legal rail providing certainty around assignment, enforceability, priority and collateral architecture; a financing rail involving banks, development finance institutions, fintechs, insurers and guarantors; and a market rail comprising businesses, exporters, anchor buyers and supplier networks generating the receivables.
“None of these rails can operate in isolation,” Oduwole said. “Trusted data without financing will not solve the liquidity problem. Financing without legal certainty will not scale. Technology without interoperability will create new silos.”
She said the committee’s six-pillar architecture and phased implementation roadmap must be matched with disciplined execution and measurable outcomes.
Oduwole said the committee should assess the strategy by the value of verified receivables entering the system, financing unlocked, SMEs and productive suppliers reached, cost and turnaround time of financing, repayment performance, and changes in inventory cycles, production, supplier resilience and export performance.
She outlined five disciplines for the committee, including designing e-invoicing for financeability from the outset, building interoperable systems rather than closed platforms, protecting data and cybersecurity, starting with real transactions, and assigning every action to an owner and a date.
The minister directed the secretariat and relevant institutions to develop a controlled 90-day pilot pathway involving selected exporters, productive value chains and anchor businesses, with measurable outcomes.
“I would like the secretariat and relevant institutions to develop a controlled 90-day pilot pathway around selected exporters, productive value chains and anchor businesses, with measurable outcomes,” she said.
Oduwole also urged the committee to make its next meeting delivery-focused, with a dashboard covering milestones, owners, dates, dependencies, risks and required decisions.
“If we cannot measure the economic outcome, we cannot claim success,” she said.
The minister said the committee’s mandate cuts across revenue administration, monetary and financial infrastructure, securities regulation, industry, trade, insurance, development finance, SMEs and the organised private sector.
Its draft terms of reference include advising on direction and sequencing, reviewing the implementation roadmap, identifying policy and regulatory measures, promoting institutional alignment, managing delivery risks and supporting stakeholder engagement.
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