The Invisible Tax on Operations
In Nigerian FMCG operations, approval bottlenecks are treated as a fact of life. Materials sit in a warehouse because a purchase order has not cleared. A promotion campaign is delayed because the marketing spend has not been signed off. Each of these events has a cost — but because it is a cost of delay rather than a direct expense, it rarely appears on anyone’s P&L.
What the Data Shows
Based on workflow data from PlugIQ deployments, the average approval takes 3.8 business days from submission to decision. Best-in-class organizations complete the same approvals in under 6 hours. For an organization processing 200 approval requests per month, that is 640 days of cumulative delay every month.
Where Bottlenecks Cluster
- Senior approver concentration. When a single director is the required signatory on all requests above a certain threshold, their availability becomes the constraint on the entire pipeline.
- No mobile approval capability. Approvers who travel or work across sites cannot clear requests from their phone.
- Missing escalation logic. When an approver does not respond, nothing happens automatically.
How PlugIQ Reduces TAT
PlugIQ addresses all three bottleneck sources directly. Approval thresholds can be distributed across multiple authorized approvers. Mobile-first approval notifications allow approvers to review and decide from anywhere. Organizations report an average reduction in turnaround time of 68% within the first 60 days.