Lidya says it provides working capital to start-ups and small business in Nigeria within 24 hours. Speaking at the 2018 breakfast meeting organised by the Financial Services Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Tunde Kehinde, co-founder of Lidya, said the company has been around for 18 months and works with small business owners or those in the value chain.
Kehinde said despite having existed for just 18 months, over 100,000 businesses have so far signed off for its loan.
According to him, the fintech lent N150 million to small businesses last year and plans to do N4 billion this year.
“If Nigeria is going to meet its financial inclusion target, it is not only going to rely on commercial banks and fintechs. Everybody needs to be involved,” he said.
He pointed out that the traditional process of getting credit in Nigeria is cumbersome and takes time, adding that Lidya’s non-performing loan rate is only 0.5 percent, which is a plus for a firm that lent so much last year.
“There are parts of Europe that enable you get money in 30 seconds. We are doing one day, but we want to reduce it further,” he stated, adding that the lender of the future is going to be more than a bank.
He pointed out that there is a need to democratise data to enable more people have access to internet services, including credit.
“The faster we can bring things like data into this market, the faster we leapfrog,” he stated, citing the case of a woman fish seller who was able to access funding from Lydia, despite not initially having a bank account.
“She makes N12 million but did not want to go to the bank. We were able to analyse her, help her open an account and gave her credit. She was subsequently able to grow her business by 40 percent,” he added.
The event was not only about Lydia. Stakeholders agreed that Nigeria needs to upscale its broadband to increase financial inclusion, especially among the rural populace.
“Information and communications technology has continued to drive entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable business models in Nigeria and beyond. Technology-driven service delivery and mobile payment solutions have transformed the way we do business today,” Babatunde Paul Ruwase, president of LCCI, said.
Ruwase said if there is any sector that has leveraged technology in a robust way, it is the financial services sector, citing the case of electronic payment which grew by 35 percent in 2017 as a case in hand.
Ayotunde Coker, managing director of Rack Centre Limited, said having a broadband helps to increase business and gross domestic product (GDP) growth.
Represented by Nosy Banda, Coker said there is a need to invest in IT infrastructure, pointing out specific IT enablers as broadband, cloud/ big data and mobile telephony.
He stressed the need for businesses to migrate to cloud to cut down on capital expenditure on IT.
