Defaulting on a mortgage with some digital lenders can flip into relentless telephone calls, frozen accounts, workplace raids, threats, and, in some instances, public shaming. In 2025, the Federal Competitors and Shopper Safety Fee (FCCPC) launched fines of as much as ₦100 million ($72,000)—or 1% of annual turnover—for lenders who resort to harassment and intimidation as mortgage restoration instruments.
These defaults, once they pile up, develop into the dangerous loans quietly consuming right into a lender’s steadiness sheet. Nomba and Globus Financial institution say their credit score mannequin is constructed to cease that from taking place, and the numbers, up to now, again them up.
The Nigerian fintech and tier-3 business financial institution stated their 18-month credit score partnership has disbursed ₦21.3 billion ($15.3 million) to Nigerian companies, with lower than 1% of these loans categorised as non-performing. That determine covers lending throughout wholesale and retail, skilled companies, meals and hospitality, oil and fuel, and fast-moving client items (FMCG).
Dangerous loans are rising throughout Nigeria’s banking system
Loans are constructed on the premise that they need to be repaid on schedule, and when repayments are delayed past the usual 90 days, the mortgage is assessed as non-performing. Non-performing loans (NPLs) have an effect on how a lot banks can lend: the upper the share of dangerous loans, the extra capital is tied up, and the extra cautious lenders develop into about extending new credit score.
NPLs in Nigeria’s banking business have been rising. In early 2023, the determine stood at 4.2%, however was estimated to achieve 7% by the tip of 2025. These will increase in NPLs are sometimes tied to foreign money devaluations, inflation, and different financial pressures that make compensation more durable for debtors.
Nomba and Globus Financial institution stated their lending mannequin seems nothing like that. The businesses stated their portfolio is performing otherwise due to how their loans had been structured and managed.
As an alternative of counting on conventional strategies of assessing creditworthiness that use monetary statements and stuck collateral, the partnership stated it used a unique method to assessing companies and monitoring mortgage efficiency.
“That quantity didn’t occur by chance,” stated Yinka Adewale, chief government Officer of Nomba, referring to its NPL ratio. “It occurred as a result of we constructed underwriting infrastructure that truly works, information that’s actual, collateral that’s significant, and debtors who’ve real pores and skin within the sport.”
How Nomba and Globus’ credit score mannequin works
Beneath this mannequin, companies eligible to use for loans are chosen primarily based on how a lot of their monetary exercise runs by means of Nomba.
“Of the over 600,000 companies we financial institution in Nigeria at this time, we internally cap the credit-eligible universe at roughly 20,000,” Adewale stated.
He defined that eligible companies should be formally registered, generate regular transaction volumes, have ample historical past on the platform, and perceive debt obligations. Even inside that pool, lending is proscribed. Nomba stated it at the moment serves roughly 10% of these eligible retailers.
Crucially, retailers don’t must submit monetary statements when making use of for loans. As an alternative, they’re assessed repeatedly on the transaction information they already generate on Nomba’s infrastructure.
“Nomba underwrites in opposition to what companies really do, not what they report,” Adewale stated. “Nomba sits on the centre of its retailers’ day by day transaction exercise; it has direct, real-time visibility into income flows, settlement patterns, operational cycles, and value constructions.”
That information varieties the premise of its credit score choices, changing the monetary audits and credit score histories that conventional lenders depend on.
Credit score amenities on this mannequin are sized to about 1% of a enterprise’s annual income, conserving compensation obligations inside a spread that ought to not pressure day by day operations.
As soon as loans are disbursed, retailers are repeatedly monitored on a rolling 30-day foundation with the identical infrastructure that decided their creditworthiness to watch modifications in income that will have an effect on mortgage compensation.
“The system flags deterioration mechanically, earlier than it materialises right into a missed cost, and triggers the suitable response, whether or not that could be a restructure, a borrower dialog, or a restoration motion,” Adewale stated.
A second pillar of Nomba and Globus’ lending mannequin is what they described as digitised collateral, a mixture of stock tied to the precise mortgage use case, digital belongings akin to shares or stablecoins, and semi-liquid bodily belongings.
“The mechanism is contractual. Belongings are pledged at origination and tied to the credit score facility by means of authorized documentation. In a default state of affairs, these belongings type a part of the restoration pathway,” Adewale stated.
As a result of digital belongings are risky, debtors should additionally present a 30% money collateral cowl upfront, making a buffer in opposition to sudden worth drops. In a default state of affairs, the pledged belongings and the money cowl type the first restoration pathway.
A mannequin constructed on visibility
The mannequin’s power can be its most evident weak spot. Assessing creditworthiness and managing digital collateral works greatest when a service provider’s monetary exercise is primarily run on Nomba.
“If we can not underwrite with confidence, we don’t prolong credit score,” Adewale stated, explaining that this varieties a significant motive why its credit score mannequin is capped.
The sub-1% efficiency of its loans may additionally be formed by what it excludes. With solely about 20,000 out of over 600,000 companies thought of eligible, and even fewer really receiving loans, the mannequin is utilized to a slim section of companies. Money-heavy companies or these working throughout a number of platforms are much less prone to qualify as a result of they current thinner information trails for Nomba to trace.
Even inside a tightly managed mannequin, defaults are usually not eradicated. If loans go dangerous on this mannequin, Nomba stated its first response is restructuring the mortgage to align with the enterprise’s present capability. The place restructuring fails, restoration of the 30% money cowl and pledged digital belongings comply with.
The construction of Globus Financial institution’s and Nomba’s partnership is break up alongside institutional strengths. Globus Financial institution supplies capital and operates inside its lending licence, whereas Nomba controls the credit score layer, from figuring out debtors to underwriting, real-time monitoring, collateral administration, and managing compensation. Danger can be shared between each companions, though Adewale stated Nomba carries most of it.
Nomba is presenting this as a blueprint fairly than a ceiling. It plans to increase the credit score mannequin to different sectors by means of further partnerships.
“The subsequent section entails constructing a pipeline of institutional credit score partnerships, together with business banks and improvement finance establishments, with precedence enlargement into logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing,” Adewale stated.
Whether or not the mannequin scales past a tightly managed service provider base with out sacrificing its clear NPL document is the query the following section of partnerships should reply.
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