Procurement doesn’t collapse in public. It breaks behind spreadsheets, between unreturned emails, and inside supply chains that are strung together with guesswork. Most Nigerian businesses have learned to work around this reality, repeating vendor names out of habit, copying last year’s quotes, and accepting delays as part of the process. Designed in direct response to these everyday breakdowns, Vender, under the leadership of Stella Eshett, offers a practical way for businesses to regain control. It was built to clean it up, to confront the daily inefficiencies that are costing businesses more than they realize.
She didn’t set out to create a product that makes procurement look good on a dashboard. She built a company that helps businesses pay attention to what they’ve been avoiding: who they buy from, how those vendors are managed, and what it actually costs to keep running without structure. Her solution isn’t sexy. It’s not disruptive in the startup sense. It’s operational, deliberate, and unforgiving of shortcuts, which is exactly why it’s working.
This company offers what most businesses have lacked: a framework. One that connects supplier onboarding, contract terms, performance tracking, and purchasing behaviour, without turning it into a bureaucratic nightmare. Companies don’t need to learn new tricks. They need visibility and accountability. They need a system that tells them which vendor delivered on time, who increased their rates without notice, and which contracts are nearing expiration.
She saw how procurement was being handled in real time: emails going to the wrong contacts, contracts saved locally with no backup, vendor relationships run on familiarity instead of performance. The company was born out of that frustration; built to act as a procurement control center for businesses that don’t have time for drama but also can’t afford another stockout, price shock, or compliance slip.
In many companies, procurement doesn’t get a seat at the strategy table. It’s seen as a cost center, not a contributor to long-term stability. She is forcing that perception to change, not by asking businesses to care about procurement in theory, but by showing them exactly what they’re losing by not caring. The company tracks procurement losses in real numbers: missed discounts, emergency sourcing fees, vendor failures that delay customer delivery. That clarity is what business leaders need, not another tech platform, but a way to stop leaking money in silence.
Industries that once tolerated reactive procurement; construction, logistics, manufacturing, and large-scale retail, are now turning to the company to restore order. These are sectors where poor vendor management isn’t just inefficient, it’s dangerous. Delayed shipments affect projects. Misinvoiced items throw off budgets. One unreliable supplier can bring down an entire workflow. It gives businesses a way to see that risk before it hits.
The company isn’t asking procurement teams to become analysts. It’s giving them the data and structure to do their jobs without drowning in the noise. For many companies, Vender is the first time procurement has been treated as something worth doing well, rather than something to survive. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t dazzle. It does the one thing procurement has needed all along: it holds the process accountable.
