How Nigerian digital lenders are tackling rising defaults

When Adekunle Ogunleye, a secondary college chemistry instructor, opened WhatsApp one night in late 2024, he didn’t anticipate finding a threatening message a few pal’s unpaid mortgage.

“It was not a pleasant message, and that shouldn’t be written about anybody, whatever the state of affairs,” he recalled. “What shocked me extra was how they even acquired my quantity.”

Tales like Ogunleye’s have tainted Nigeria’s $2.1 billion digital lending trade, valued at an estimated $2.1 billion. You may hardly scroll by means of 5 YouTube Shorts with out seeing a mortgage app advert. The variety of authorized digital lenders has surged by 166.47% to 461 in August 2025 from 173 in April 2023, in accordance with the Federal Competitors and Client Safety Fee (FCCPC).

These lenders are providing credit score to folks that conventional banks have lengthy missed. However they’re rapidly discovering why banks have at all times been cautious about retail lending: defaults.

In 2023, the CBN linked the growth in shopper credit score, composed of private and retail loans, to the rise of fintech platforms. As of January 2025, private loans had fallen 37.4% to ₦2.39 trillion, whereas retail loans jumped 92.2% to ₦1.73 trillion, reflecting a surge in borrowing by small companies battling inflation and rising prices.

For a lot of Nigerians battling financial hardship and inflation, 22.22% in June 2025, retail lenders are sometimes the quickest choice for survival money.

“There was a discount in disposable earnings, prompting lots of people to make use of our providers,” mentioned Gbemi Adelekan, president of the Cash Lenders Affiliation (MLA). “Individuals are turning to moneylenders as a result of our necessities will not be as stringent as conventional banks. We’re sooner and extra versatile.”

The default drawback

This velocity, nevertheless, comes at a value. The CBN’s Q2 2025 Credit score Situation Survey reported larger default charges for secured and unsecured lending. The IMF, in a current report on Nigeria, warned of how “excessive NPLs in a number of NBFIs, new mortgage and shopper lending schemes, and fast-growing fintech and crypto sectors pose potential dangers to monetary stability.”

“Individuals are borrowing from completely different lenders with out the intention of paying again,” Adenekan mentioned. “ They don’t have the earnings to pay.”

Adedeji Olowe, founder and CEO of Lendsqr, a Nigerian lending software program startup, places it bluntly: “If you happen to lend cash to 100 folks, 97 folks should pay you again. The rates of interest you make from these 97 folks have to be sufficient to cowl and pay again the capital. So that you see, lenders are actually strolling on eggshells.”

Whereas digital lenders have traditionally factored excessive defaults into their rates of interest, charging premium charges to cowl for dangerous loans, they’re doubling down on improved expertise, credit score histories, telephone information, and background checks.

The function of credit score bureaus

For operators like Carbon, credit score histories decide how a lot an individual can borrow. Credit score scores issue a borrower’s SMARTScore, cost historical past, credit score utilisation ratio, and excellent money owed, in accordance with Credit score Registry.

These assist lenders keep away from dangerous debtors. “We monitor credit score histories with the credit score bureau to evaluate credibility,” mentioned Adelekan. Nonetheless, he identified that these histories are up to date month-to-month, not in actual time, leaving lenders uncovered.

“You may nonetheless see what number of lenders somebody has borrowed from. If somebody has been to 5 – 6 lenders earlier than you — that may be a crimson flag,” he added. This, he mentioned, results in 30–40% bounce charges in functions.

Lendsqr’s Olowe famous that the distinction between lending in Nigeria and developed markets just like the US lies in how efficient the credit score rating system is. “You gained’t be capable of get cash from another person once more. It could actually destroy you, as a result of no person will be capable of provide you with cash,” he mentioned.

Within the US, lenders report defaulters to credit score bureaus, however Nigerian lenders are nonetheless enjoying catch-up. Nigeria has three credit score bureaus: CRC Credit score Bureau Restricted, CreditRegistry Nigeria, and FirstCentral Credit score Bureau, all totally licenced by the CBN. 

Signing up for every prices about ₦250,000. To get a full image, a lender should question no less than two of the three as a result of reporting may be inconsistent.

Whereas lenders are obligated to report defaults, they nonetheless should pay to entry this information. Search charges vary from ₦100 per applicant for fundamental checks to ₦1,500 for in-depth profiles. For 1,000 candidates, that’s ₦300,000 to ₦4.5 million throughout the three registries. These prices are ultimately handed on to debtors, pushing up rates of interest.

This screening often solely makes about 30 – 40% of candidates eligible for loans, in accordance with Olowe, with banks required to be signed up with no less than two. “However many lenders don’t even report back to any credit score bureau in any respect,” he mentioned.

“The one cause credit score works effectively in developed international locations shouldn’t be due to algorithms, however due to higher reporting,” Olowe argued. “If you happen to default, your title goes in all places. In Nigeria, it would go to 1 bureau, or nowhere in any respect.”

AI and new instruments

Whereas Lendsqr is experimenting with AI fashions that analyse debtors’ voices and faces to evaluate creditworthiness, its founder notes that outcomes haven’t been excellent.

Nonetheless, the lending software program startup shouldn’t be giving up. It not too long ago signed agreements with all three credit score bureaus to make reporting and checking credit score histories extra seamless for its shoppers.

“Lenders who join with us don’t should pay to seek out information. We assist them examine from one credit score registry to a different. We automate the method and ensure to cross all of the Ts,” Olowe mentioned. “Weekly automated reporting ought to go stay quickly, too.”

Different lenders are tightening their entry gates. Commerce Lenda now restricts loans to customers built-in into its system who meet stricter standards. “We’re nonetheless fine-tuning it, however the concept is to get high quality leads of people that do not need the intention to default within the first place,” mentioned CEO Adeshina Adewumi.

For lenders like Babatunde Akin-Moses, co-founder of Sycamore, improved digital identification techniques are serving to scale back default dangers. “It’s simpler to trace folks now, and the legal guidelines are extra credible and sturdy right this moment,” he mentioned.

In June, the Federal Authorities introduced plans to hyperlink loans to the Nationwide Identification Quantity (NIN), making defaults traceable throughout banks, fintechs, and microfinance establishments.

“Your NIN will now anchor your credit score profile,” mentioned Uzoma Nwagba, managing director of the Nigerian Client Credit score Company (CREDICORP), on the launch. Mortgage defaults, he warned, may quickly have an effect on every thing from passport renewal to renting a home. “There will likely be no hiding place.”

Lendsqr’s Olowe believes open banking will likely be one other game-changer, giving lenders safe entry to banking statements and transaction histories. Direct debits are additionally serving to, although some debtors sidestep them by transferring funds to wallets like Opay, PalmPay, or Moniepoint. “Direct debit shouldn’t be attending to them, which continues to create methods for defaults to entrench,” he mentioned.

Function of the FCCPC

The FCCPC regulates digital lenders beneath its 2022 pointers. As of August 2025, totally authorized lenders rose to 399 from 119 in April 2023. Conditional approvals dropped to 40 from 54, and 22 lenders function with direct CBN licences.

A part of the sector’s attraction, Adelekan says, is decrease start-up prices and simpler licensing in comparison with microfinance banks. “It’s not as inflexible as getting a license for a microfinance financial institution or a finance firm license from the CBN,” he mentioned.

Past regulation, the FCCPC is battling to wash up the trade’s picture, particularly round aggressive restoration ways. It has delisted 47 mortgage apps and positioned 88 on a watchlist for violating moral requirements.

“We inform our members that whereas recovering, their cash is vital, they have to by no means resort to unethical strategies,” Adelekan mentioned. “The FCCPC is doing rather a lot to wash up the trade.”

On the finish of 2023, the fee introduced plans for a stronger framework to curb defaults, although it has but to materialise.

The stake of small companies

Whilst lenders tighten their phrases, a lot of Nigeria’s almost 40 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which generate the nation’s common month-to-month income of ₦223,250 for small companies, rely on short-term loans to maintain operations working.

For Regxta, which serves rural and semi-urban areas, rising prices have pressured it to shift extra shoppers from the micro to the SME class, enabling them to entry bigger loans. “Clients want extra financing on account of rising prices,” mentioned CEO Rukayat Kolawole-Bello. Since 2018, Regxta has lent ₦7 billion, with ₦3 billion disbursed since late 2023 alone.

Retail lending is a sticky enterprise however very important for unlocking consumption and progress. In developed markets, banks take the lead, however in Nigeria, digital lenders are stepping up, lowering mortgage processing time to only a few faucets on a smartphone, a comfort that not solely transforms entry to credit score but in addition exams their means to maintain defaults in examine. 

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