Lending to Nigeria’s SMEs is hard. Nomba thinks there’s a better way
Nomba wants to fix SME lending in Nigeria using payment data to underwrite loans and keep defaults low. But as it scales, the real challenge will be maintaining repayment discipline and navigating recovery.
Nomba has announced the results of an 18-month partnership with Globus Bank that saw it issue ₦21.3 billion in loans to businesses across wholesale and retail, professional services, food and hospitality, oil and gas, and FMCG.
According to the fintech, the partnership saw its non-performing loan ratio remain below 1%, a result it says strengthens its case for lending to businesses in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian credit conversation has been captured by one question: how much have you deployed? That is the wrong question. The right question is how much has come back and why,” Yinka Adewale, Nomba CEO, shares.
Credit to businesses is widely accepted as critical for boosting productivity and driving growth. But for Nigerian small and medium businesses, access to credit remains limited. While banks are expected to extend loans to businesses, the vast majority remain cautious, as the absence of consequences for defaulters makes debt recovery particularly tedious.
Nomba says its approach offers a more efficient way to not only determine who gets a loan but also to recover it. Traditionally, banks require extensive financial documentation and physical collateral — barriers that many small and medium-sized businesses struggle to meet, effectively locking them out of credit.
Nomba takes a different approach. Instead of relying on audited statements and historical financials, it evaluates businesses based on real-time payment flows processed on its platform — data it already has direct visibility into.
On the collateral side, the requirements are more flexible. Businesses can either commit 30% of the requested loan amount in cash or provide alternative assets such as stocks, stablecoins, equity stakes, or even physical assets like vehicles.
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