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Nigerian tech founder Onikola Waliyu is developing a bookkeeping solution aimed at helping informal traders and small business owners keep better financial records using language and communication styles they are already comfortable with.
Waliyu, who describes himself as a digital product architect, began his technology career in September 2019, when he joined DevCrib Technologies as a junior product data analyst. Although he studied sociology and anthropology at university, his interest in technology eventually led him into software development.
His experience navigating the technology industry has now informed his approach to building tools for a segment of Nigeria’s economy that often relies on informal methods to record sales, expenses and customer transactions.
Building for Traders, Not Just Accountants
The product is designed around a simple problem: many traders need bookkeeping, but conventional accounting tools can feel too complex or unfamiliar for the way they operate their businesses.
Rather than expecting users to adapt completely to traditional accounting software, Waliyu’s approach focuses on meeting traders within their existing environment, including the languages they speak.
That localisation could be important in Nigeria, where millions of small businesses operate informally and business owners often manage transactions without sophisticated accounting systems.
For these entrepreneurs, keeping accurate records can influence their understanding of revenue, expenses, outstanding payments and overall business performance.
From Tech Interest to Product Building
Waliyu’s journey into technology did not begin with a conventional computer-science education.
After studying sociology and anthropology, he moved deeper into the technology ecosystem, beginning with a role as a product data analyst before progressing into software programming and digital product development.
That background has shaped his product-building philosophy, combining an understanding of people and their behaviour with technology designed to solve practical business problems.
His latest project reflects a broader trend among Nigerian founders: building digital products specifically around the realities of informal businesses rather than simply adapting solutions created for more formal markets.
Nigeria’s Informal Economy Creates Opportunity
The opportunity for locally adapted bookkeeping tools is significant because small businesses account for a large portion of economic activity in Nigeria.
Several Nigerian startups have previously entered the bookkeeping and financial-management space, including platforms such as Kippa, Pastel and ProbityBooks, with products designed to help small businesses manage sales, expenses, inventory and other financial activities.
The continued emergence of such products points to a persistent gap between the needs of informal businesses and conventional financial software.
Waliyu’s focus on language adds another layer to that challenge, particularly for traders who may be more comfortable conducting business in local languages than navigating software built primarily around formal business terminology.
Localisation Could Drive Wider Digital Adoption
For Nigeria’s technology ecosystem, the development also highlights the importance of building products around how people actually live and work.
Digital adoption is not determined solely by whether a technology exists. Ease of use, language, familiarity and the ability to solve an immediate problem can determine whether entrepreneurs incorporate a product into their daily operations.
By bringing bookkeeping closer to the language and practices of traders, Waliyu is attempting to remove some of those barriers.
The bigger test will be whether the product can translate that localised approach into sustained adoption among Nigeria’s large informal business community and help more traders move from memory-based record keeping to structured digital financial management.
