Ask a finance manager what the business spent on technology last year and you usually get a pause. The money was spent. It just never had a line of its own.
Most of it gets spent when something breaks. A laptop dies the week of a big pitch. The domain expires over a public holiday. A staff member leaves with the only admin password. Each one gets paid for in a hurry, usually at the worst price, and nobody adds them up at the end of the year.
This guide is for small and medium businesses, and it covers the running budget: the IT and digital costs that keep the business working day to day. Email, software, support, security, devices, internet, your website. Big one-off projects, such as a new ERP rollout, sit on top of it.
That budget doesn't need to be complicated. It needs six lines, an honest number against each, and one person who owns it. Here is how to build each line from documents you already have, a worksheet to put the numbers in, and the places where money usually leaks.
Before you start: find the numbers you already have
Pull twelve months of bank and card statements, and every supplier invoice that mentions IT, internet, software, hosting or website. Most of what you need is hiding there. Put each item on one sheet with three columns: what it is, what it cost last year, and when it renews.
One rule: each cost goes in one line only. If your accounting software also runs payroll, it still gets recorded once. That stops the total being counted twice.
You will find things you forgot you pay for. That is normal, and it is the first saving.
1. Licences, email and domains
What goes in it: Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or Zoho licences. Domain renewals and website hosting. Any other tool paid per user, such as CRM or design software. (Accounting and ERP go in line 5.) Add SSL only if you pay for it; many hosting plans include a free certificate.
How to estimate it: list every subscription from your statements. Multiply per-user licences by next year's headcount, not this year's. Write the renewal date next to each one.
For anything billed in dollars or another currency, keep two columns: the price in that currency, and your naira estimate. Write down the exchange rate you used. Then work out the cost if the naira weakens, and keep a small contingency for it. Check the rate and the prices again each quarter.
The gap we see most: licences still running for staff who left, and two tools doing the same job. If you are not sure you are on the right suite, our comparison of Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and Zoho Workplace walks through it.
2. Support
What goes in it: whoever fixes things when they break. That might be an in-house IT person, a monthly retainer, or a vendor you call when there is a problem.
How to estimate it: if you pay per call-out, count last year's call-outs and what each one cost. If you have a retainer, read what it covers and what gets billed on top. If you have an in-house person, include their tools and training, not just salary.
Where it usually goes wrong: no written scope. The business thinks everything is covered; the vendor thinks only some things are. We wrote about why businesses end up overpaying or underpaying for IT support.
3. Security, backups and data protection
What goes in it: protection on every laptop and phone that touches company data, email security, two-step login on important accounts, and backups.
It also covers data protection. Every business that holds customer or staff data has duties under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. On top of that, organisations the NDPC designates as data controllers or processors of major importance may have to file a Compliance Audit Return each year, by 31 March (Templars summary of the 2025 directive (opens in a new tab)). Not every company has the same filing duty. Check which requirements apply to you, and if you do file, budget for the review behind the return, not just the filing.
How to estimate it: price security licences per user at next year's headcount. Add backup storage. Then add a one-off amount to set up whatever is missing.
What we check first: whether the backups have ever been restored. A backup you have not tested is a hope, not a plan. A test restore every quarter is a sensible habit.
4. Devices, connectivity and power
What goes in it: laptops, desktops, phones and printers. Your internet: the main fibre or wireless line, a backup line from a second provider, routers, and data for staff who work away from the office. And the power kit that keeps it all running, such as UPS units and inverter batteries.
How to estimate it: list every device, who has it and how old it is. Decide the age at which you replace a laptop, then budget for the ones that cross that line next year. Add one for each planned new hire. Add twelve months of internet for each line, and price a backup line if you don't have one. UPS and inverter batteries wear out too, so check their age.
Where it usually goes wrong: devices bought one at a time in emergencies, at retail prices, with no record of who has what. When someone leaves, the laptop sometimes leaves with them. And when the only internet line goes down, the whole office stops.
5. Website and business systems
What goes in it: website maintenance and updates, booking or online store fees, accounting or ERP software, and any custom app you rely on.
It also covers e-invoicing. The NRS rollout started with large taxpayers in late 2025. Medium taxpayers, with annual turnover between ₦1 billion and ₦5 billion, went live on 1 July 2026, and enforcement for them is scheduled for January to March 2027. Smaller taxpayers are scheduled to go live in July 2027, with enforcement in early 2028 (KPMG summary of the NRS schedule (opens in a new tab)). The NRS has said timelines may change, so confirm your phase with your tax adviser, then budget for any software change or integration your invoicing needs.
How to estimate it: add up maintenance fees and platform renewals. If you need one bigger project next year, such as a new website, keep it as a separate project line so it doesn't hide inside the running costs. Our guide to website pricing in Nigeria explains why quotes vary so much.
Where it usually goes wrong: a website nobody has touched since launch. It still works, until a plugin update or an expired card takes it down.
6. Training and AI
What goes in it: team plans for AI tools, and time to learn how to use them well. Also any training your team needs on the tools you already pay for.
How to estimate it: decide which roles will use AI every day. Price team seats for those roles. Add a few days of training.
What to watch: staff already using personal AI accounts for work. Some of that is harmless. Some of it puts customer or company data in places you don't control. Putting this line in the budget lets you choose the tools and set the rules.
When money is tight: what comes first
Not every line carries the same weight. Budget first for what keeps the business running, protects its data and meets the obligations that apply to you: lines 1 to 4, and the systems in line 5 you can't trade without. Then add what saves time, improves service or wins new customers, such as new AI seats or a website redesign.
The seventh thing: one owner
A budget with no owner becomes a list. Name one person who owns IT spending. They don't need to be technical. They need to know the renewal dates, approve new subscriptions, and review the six lines every quarter.
Your 2027 IT budget worksheet
Copy this into a spreadsheet, with columns for annual cost, renewal dates and priority, and fill it in from your statements.
- 1. Licences, email and domains: ₦_____ a year · must have
- 2. Support: ₦_____ a year · must have
- 3. Security, backups and data protection: ₦_____ a year · must have
- 4. Devices, connectivity and power: ₦_____ a year · must have
- 5. Website and business systems: ₦_____ a year · core systems first
- 6. Training and AI: ₦_____ a year · by role
- Contingency (exchange rate, price rises): ₦_____
- Total running budget: ₦_____
The priorities are a starting point, not a rule. Yours depend on how your business runs and what you already pay for. If you want more detail, add columns for monthly cost, currency, headcount and one-off projects.
Where the budget leaks
When you fill in the worksheet, the total is often higher than anyone expected. Most of the extra is not in one big bill. It sits in small renewals nobody looks at:
- Domains, hosting and email spread across several providers and card accounts, each renewing at its own price.
- Licences for people who left, and two tools doing the same job.
- Mailboxes on a more expensive plan than the person needs.
- Hosting still paid for sites that are broken or no longer used.
- Call-out fees that, added up, cost more than a retainer would.
We saw all of this at the Slowe Group. Their 66 domains, hosting plans and mailboxes were spread across at least five provider accounts. Two domains had expired and three of their eight websites were broken, one for more than a year. We listed every asset with its cost and renewal date, agreed a plan with the group, and moved everything into one account they own. Their yearly renewal costs came down 21%: domains 17%, hosting 18% and email 53%.
Start with a short audit
If you would rather not do this alone, we can do it with you. We run a short audit of your IT environment and digital assets: every domain, mailbox, licence, hosting plan, device and support contract, with what each costs and when it renews. You get an evaluation of what you have, where your budget is leaking, and what we'd cut, merge or move to bring your running costs down. Then you decide what to do with it.
It starts with a free 30-minute call. Email hello@inventrium.net with "2027" in the subject, and we'll take it from there.
Published by Inventrium Magazine
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