That first email from a UK or EU client hits different. New logo, foreign currency, proof your agency can compete outside your home market. It's the kind of win worth telling the whole team about.

Then the invoice goes out, the client pays on time like they said they would, and somehow the money still feels like it's stuck in traffic somewhere between London and Lagos.

So how do you actually invoice EU or UK clients and get paid without the wait? The simplest way is to invoice in the client's currency, Euro or Pound, and hold that money in an account that can actually receive it directly. Most of the friction African agencies run into is not the invoice itself. It is what happens after the client hits send: no local account to receive Euro or Pound into, so the payment gets routed through a third party or a slow domiciliary transfer.

The real problem is not the invoice, it's getting paid

Winning a UK or EU client is the easy part for most agencies. (Tell that to whoever's been chasing leads on LinkedIn for six months, marketing is its own war.) But once you're at the contract stage, the invoice template, the payment terms, the currency written on the document, none of that is hard. What's hard is what happens next.

Without a dedicated Euro or Pound account, an agency has two options. Route the payment through someone else's account and hope the conversion is fair. Or ask the client to pay into a domiciliary account, then wait several days for it to clear and convert. Neither is a good look for a client relationship you are trying to grow.

What we learned building for this problem

We recently added Euro and Pound deposits and withdrawals to Onboard Business. Before building it, we spoke with 37 businesses about how they were handling foreign currency revenue, and one theme kept coming up: the friction of getting paid once you've expanded beyond your home market.

KMF, a Nigerian travel agency, is a good example. Last year they tapped into a new market: customers in the UK and EU. That opened up a solid source of foreign currency revenue, but getting paid was the problem. They either had to route payments through someone else, or ask customers to pay into their Nigerian domiciliary account, a process that could take three or more days.

Now KMF has dedicated Euro and Pound accounts in their business name on Onboard Business. Their UK and EU customers can pay them directly. KMF can then convert that money to Naira in minutes, not days.

How to set up proper EU and UK invoicing as an agency

1. Get an account that can receive Euro or Pound directly, in your business name, not a personal or borrowed account. This is what actually removes the friction, not a better invoice template.
2. Invoice in the client's currency. A UK client paying in Pounds and an EU client paying in Euro is simpler for them and avoids putting the conversion risk entirely on your side.
3. Set clear payment terms up front, including which currency you're invoicing in and roughly how long it takes for funds to reach you.
4. Convert on your own schedule, not because a slow transfer forces your hand. Once the money is in an account you control, you decide when to move it to Naira or another currency.
5. Keep documentation clean for both your own records and any compliance checks tied to receiving foreign currency as a business.

Why this matters more as your agency grows

The first international client is usually manageable, even with a clunky payment process. The friction shows up as you scale. More clients, more currencies, more invoices sitting in limbo waiting to clear. An agency earning meaningfully in Euro or Pound needs infrastructure, not a workaround.

If your agency is billing UK or EU clients and you're still routing payments through someone else's account or waiting days for a domiciliary transfer to clear, this is exactly the kind of problem Onboard Business is built to solve.

Get paid directly, in the currency your clients already use

Opening a Euro or Pound account with Onboard means your UK and EU clients pay you the way they normally would. No routing through someone else, no multi-day wait for a domiciliary transfer to clear.

Apply for Onboard Business and set up dedicated Euro and Pound accounts for your agency.