Access to loans from Nigerian banks is difficult for individuals and small entrepreneurs, if not almost impossible.
On rare occasions where available, the process is physically rigorous, slow and lengthy; almost invalidating the necessity for the financial credit. Most times, entrepreneurs looking to grow their businesses may end up giving up and even dumping their dreams.
Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are critical to the development of any economy as they possess great potentials for employment generation, improvement of local technology, output diversification, development of indigenous entrepreneurship and forward integration with large-scale industries.
Access to credit facility is important in every society, as there will always be those who need urgent cash to meet some urgent needs, as well as those who have much money to lend in anticipation of interests. This is one mission that was left in the hands of commercial banks for a long time. Needless to say, they failed many people.
The advent of technology has seen some Fintech companies simplifying the complexity around access to credit. Some of these platforms include
FINT
FINT is a loan marketplace that connects borrowers to lenders. Borrowers get access to credit at affordable rates and lenders get their money back with interest. It is probably one of the more necessary innovations in Nigeria’s Fintech space at the moment because it solves two problems. The first is that it makes it easier to get a loan to do literally anything and the second is that it simplifies wealth creation.
Users can borrow any amount ranging from N60,000 and N2 million at rates as low as 8% for 3 – 12 months, which in Nigeria is remarkable because, in the current environment, a loan from a formal financial institution with 20% interest would be a good deal. Also, loans on the platform do not need collaterals. For lenders, your money grows at 26-39% for one-year loan tenures, which is at least 16% better than a fantastic fixed term deposit and 11% better than T-bills and average money market funds.
Paylater
Paylater, founded in 2012 is a leading digital financial services platform that specializes in consumer lending, by providing access to credit, simple payments solutions, high-yield investment opportunities and easy-to-use tools for personal financial management.
With just an Android device and basic requirements, No collateral, guarantors or application fees required. Customers can apply for a Paylater loan 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a quick application process that lets you know your status within minutes. With this platform, customers can get an instant loan from ₦1,500 to ₦1million, to help you cover urgent cash needs. Paylater offers short-term (1 to 6months), unsecured, instant loans to individuals without collateral or a guarantor.
Once the user downloads the app, he/she would be prompted to sign in or sign up for identification. This will take the user to a brief registration/application form. The user then indicates how much he/she will like to borrow. The app will display the available loan offer in the app and user can view his/her expected repayment(s). Successful applicants will be notified within minutes. The disbursed funds are sent to the Paylater Wallet in the app, not the bank account. If you wish to transfer funds, please click ‘Send Money’ on your dashboard, select ‘to bank account’ and then select Wallet as the payment method. A review of the feedback from users of the platform shows a high level of satisfaction and customers’ confidence in the platform.
ZEDVANCE
Zedvance is another online lending platform providing credit to salary earners. To be eligible, applicants must be in paid employment, must be between the ages of 22 and 55 years, an active salary account, and a pension account. Borrowers can access up to 3million and a risk-based pricing module is deployed to determine repayment on loans. Default penalty of 1% on installment amount for each day of default. If the default passes 30 days, more stringent measures may be applied which may include: reporting defaulter to his/her employer, reporting defaulter to Credit Bureau.
KiaKia
Founded by Olajide Abiola in July 2016, the platform makes it possible for business people to receive loan easily, and as the name KiaKia implies, which means ‘quick’ in Yoruba, enables people to receive loans as quickly possible. It is a licensed, entirely-online, direct and P2P lender that uses technology to provide direct personal loans at flexible rates, and also match borrowers with individual or corporate lenders at mutually-agreed rates. With improved credibility, borrowers are able to make their own interest rates offer to selected lenders. It utilizes psychometry, big-data, machine learning and digital forensics for its proprietary credit scoring and credit risk assessment algorithm to provide direct and peered personal and business loans to millions of individuals and SMEs without credit information. With improved credibility, borrowers are able to make their own interest rates offer to selected lenders while KiaKia takes a little fee for that.
QuickCheck
Loan applications are made using the Android mobile app which has over 50,000 downloads already from the Google Play Store. Once the user fills the form, the machine learning algorithm takes care of the rest.
Loans up to ₦30,000, with interest only for the number of days you take the loan at 1% daily, are approved in less than 24 hours. Users can also buy airtime and recharge their phone lines instantly without leaving the QuickCheck app. The machine learning algorithm predicts user behavior and evaluates loan applications.
This is a competitive advantage against traditional banking because the algorithm can be updated very quickly to match current market trends.
