Professional Evaluation of Open-Source ERP Systems for Small and Medium Enterprises in Nigeria’s South East Zone

Small and medium enterprises in South East Nigeria's industrial and commercial centres, particularly in Aba, Onitsha, and Nnewi, lack affordable enterprise resource planning infrastructure, relying on fragmented spreadsheet-based processes that hinder growth and operational efficiency. This study professionally evaluated four open-source ERP systems (Odoo, ERPNext, Dolibarr, and Apache OFBiz) for suitability in South East Nigerian SME deployments. A structured evaluation framework based on seven criteria was applied: functional coverage (inventory, sales, procurement, accounting, HR), ease of customisation for Nigerian regulatory compliance (FIRS VAT, payroll tax), Naira currency and Nigerian tax configuration, user interface accessibility for low-ICT-literacy staff, hosting flexibility for on-premise deployment on low-cost servers, community support quality, and total cost of ownership over three years. Functionality scoring, technical benchmarking, and structured interviews with 10 SME owners in Aba and Nnewi were conducted. Odoo Community Edition and ERPNext emerged as the top-performing systems. ERPNext scored highest overall due to its built-in Nigerian payroll module, superior community-authored Nigerian tax configuration, and lower total cost of ownership for on-premise deployment. Odoo scored higher on UI accessibility and third-party integration ecosystem. A three-year total cost of ownership comparison showed ERPNext at approximately 1.4 million naira versus Odoo Community at 2.1 million naira for a 50-user SME, excluding customisation costs. The study recommends ERPNext as the default evaluation choice for South East Nigerian SMEs and suggests SMEDAN subsidise ERP implementation for manufacturers through the South East Development Commission.

Keywords: open-source ERP, ERPNext, SME, South East Nigeria, enterprise software evaluation