Lagos: Zoho Corporation, a global technology company, has unveiled the Nigeria edition of Zoho Books to boost financial information management. The cloud-based accounting solution was introduced alongside Nigeria editions of other applications in Zoho’s finance and operations suite.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Prashant Ganti, the Vice President, Global Product Strategy and Alliances, Finance and Operations Business Unit at Zoho, stated that the new service would assist businesses in managing Value-Added Tax (VAT) and ensuring compliance with e-invoicing regulations. Ganti emphasized that compliance and financial visibility were turning into competitive advantages for Nigerian enterprises.
The solutions provided are designed to minimize manual processes associated with VAT and e-invoicing while offering businesses real-time financial insights. The Nigeria edition of Zoho Books automates the application of VAT rates based on item type and customer classification, and it supports reverse-charge transactions.
Ganti highlighted that the platform enables businesses to manage withholding tax for both residents and non-residents and to generate VAT schedules in the format required by the TaxProMax portal. Businesses can generate and submit e-invoices to the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS) through an approved e-invoicing service provider. Additionally, Zoho Books offers features such as invoicing, online payment collection, accounting, bank reconciliation, inventory tracking, budgeting, and workflow automation.
A recent survey of over 100 Nigerian small and medium-sized businesses revealed limited use of AI in financial management, with only 24 percent currently utilizing AI tools. Lack of awareness was cited by 65 percent of respondents as the main barrier. However, 30 percent of businesses that have adopted AI reported saving between one and three hours weekly. The AI capabilities of Zoho Books, through its Zia platform, can help businesses categorize bank transactions, retrieve financial data, forecast trends, and identify anomalies.
Further, the Nigeria edition encompasses Zoho billing, invoice, commerce, inventory, spend, expense, procurement, and practice applications. Integrating these applications on a unified platform enables seamless data flow, reducing the need for repeated data entry and enhancing financial information management. Zoho’s finance and operations platform currently supports country-specific editions tailored to meet local tax and compliance requirements across 16 markets.