Duplo has partnered with Wema Bank to bring financial automation tools to business customers on the ALAT platform.
The partnership gives businesses using ALAT by Wema Bank access to Duplo's financial operations platform, allowing them to automate payments, manage expenses and approvals, generate and collect invoices, and control financial workflows from a single system.
Addressing operational fragmentation
According to the companies, many growing businesses continue to manage invoices, approvals, vendor payments, expense requests, collections, and reconciliation across separate spreadsheets, emails, banking portals, and accounting systems. This fragmentation can lead to delays, errors, limited cash visibility, and weaker financial controls, which in turn affects businesses' ability to scale. Furthermore, finance teams at mid-sized Nigerian firms reportedly spend between 30 and 50 hours per month on manual reconciliation, dispute resolution, and audit preparation, representing a notable operational cost when measured against market labour rates.
The integration is intended to help ALAT business customers move from transactional banking towards a more structured financial operating system. Through the partnership, businesses will gain access to local and international payments, expense management and approvals, invoice generation and collection, vendor payment automation, real-time financial reporting, and financial workflow controls, all delivered through Duplo's platform. As part of the launch, existing ALAT business customers will receive three months of complimentary access to the platform.
The system is built on a consent-driven model that lets businesses access Duplo directly through the ALAT interface, receive a Wema Bank virtual account for collections, and process payments via Wema Bank's payment rails, while managing financial workflows through a single dashboard. Onboarding follows a defined sequence: registration, plan selection, payment, KYC synchronisation, compliance review, account activation, and virtual account provisioning.
Commenting on the partnership, Tunde Mabawonku, Executive Director – Finance & Digital Optimization at Wema Bank, said the integration reflects the bank's focus on supporting how businesses operate day to day, noting that customers increasingly need more than payment services alone.
In addition, Yele Oyekola, CEO and co-founder of Duplo, said the partnership allows the company to embed its platform within a system businesses already use, with the aim of improving real-time visibility over cash flow and reducing operational risk tied to managing finances across multiple systems.
Market context
The partnership reflects a broader shift in Nigeria's digital banking sector, where financial institutions are increasingly combining core banking services with embedded financial operations tools. Rather than offering banking services in isolation, providers are positioning themselves to support the wider financial workflows of business customers, from payments and collections through to reconciliation and reporting.
