It’s one thing to fill roles in your finance department. It’s another thing entirely to build a world-class finance team that drives strategy, owns outcomes, masters finance automation tools and adapts fast in the face of economic chaos.
Building a world-class finance team in Africa requires creating the right environment, adopting the finance automation tools, and setting the right standards, especially for Nigerian CFOs managing rapid growth and complexity.
So if you’re a CFO in Nigeria trying to build a world-class finance team for your business, here are five proven tips I wish more leaders followed — plus how smart finance automation tools can turn your team from good to exceptional.
1. Hire for Curiosity, Not Just Credentials
Degrees matter. So do certifications. But I’ll choose a sharp, curious mind over a textbook accountant any day.
Why? Because today’s finance teams aren’t just managing ledgers. They’re solving business problems, managing tools, and advising leadership in real time. And that requires people who love to learn and can think across functions.
Tip: During interviews, ask candidates how they solved a finance bottleneck, implemented a tool, or challenged a process. Their answers will tell you more than their ICAN or CFA ever will.
Eager to grow in your finance career? Read this article now.
2. Build Process Muscle Early
Even with a great team, you’ll hit a ceiling if your processes are unclear or non-existent.
Disjointed approval chains, manual reconciliations, scattered invoices — these things kill productivity and create friction. More importantly, they make it hard for you to scale without burning out your people.
This is where finance automation tools like Duplo come in.
With Duplo, you can:
- Create smart approval workflows
- Reconcile payments automatically
- Track every transaction in real time
You can’t build a world-class team on WhatsApp messages and Excel spreadsheets. Invest in structure early and your team will thank you.
3. Treat Tech as a Team Member
A lot of CFOs still think of tools as “helpers”, nice-to-haves, not business drivers. That mindset has to go.
In a modern finance team, your finance automation tools should be as integrated into your workflow as your analysts or accountants. They reduce grunt work, improve accuracy, and surface insights no human can track manually.
Think of tech as your 6th hire but faster, more accurate, and available 24/7.
4. Invest in Cross-Training
Here’s what world-class teams do: they build depth. That means training your AP analyst to understand forecasting. Teaching your finance ops lead how to run reporting dashboards. Encouraging your accountant to understand compliance.
Cross-functional depth creates resilience and it makes your team adaptable in crisis moments.
Pro tip: Pair your tool onboarding (like Duplo) with cross-training sessions. Help each team member understand how automation impacts the entire finance lifecycle from spend approvals to audit trails.
5. Make Visibility Non-Negotiable
A team can’t execute well if they’re blind.
If your team doesn’t have real-time access to cash flow, pending approvals, or what’s been paid vs what’s overdue then they’re flying blind and that’s how mistakes happen. That’s how trust erodes.
Great teams work transparently. They share numbers. They collaborate in the open. And they use tools that surface insights, not hide them.
With finance automation tools like Duplo, you can give your team a single dashboard that shows:
- All outgoing and incoming payments
- Expense requests and status
- Vendor payment timelines
- Reconciliation status
The result of this is of course clarity, confidence and control.
Final Thoughts: Great Teams Don’t Happen by Luck
In African businesses, especially in Nigeria, finance teams are often expected to do too much with too little using too many platforms, too many processes, too little support.
But building a world-class finance team isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about building smarter.
You need:
- The right people
- Clear, flexible processes
- And modern finance automation tools that make excellence possible
That’s exactly what Duplo is here to help with.
Want to Empower Your Finance Team to Work Like the Best?
Duplo gives you the tools to:
- Eliminate manual errors
- Accelerate approval workflows
- Track every payment with real-time visibility
- Free up your team to focus on strategy, not spreadsheets
If you’re building a world-class finance team in Africa, Duplo is the competitive edge you’ve been looking for.
Try Duplo today and give your finance team the tools to win.
