Moniepoint disbursed over ₦1 trillion in loans to 70,000 businesses in 2025, marking one of the largest single-year credit expansions to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria’s history and underscoring the fintech’s growing role beyond payments.
For decades, access to credit has been a major constraint for Nigerian businesses. Traditional banks have often required heavy collateral, long processing times, and extensive documentation—barriers that exclude many informal and semi-formal enterprises. Moniepoint’s lending surge reflects a different approach: using real-time transaction data from its payments infrastructure to assess risk and extend credit quickly to merchants already active on its platform.
The loans were largely short- to medium-term facilities designed to support working capital needs—inventory restocking, equipment purchases, rent, and payroll. For many recipients, access to timely financing meant the difference between scaling operations and shutting down in an inflationary, high-interest-rate environment. By integrating lending directly into its business banking products, Moniepoint reduced friction and enabled merchants to access funds without leaving their existing financial workflow.
This credit expansion was powered by Moniepoint’s extensive in-person payments network. With millions of daily transactions flowing through its POS terminals and business accounts, the company gained deep visibility into cash flows, seasonality, and business performance. This data-driven underwriting model allowed Moniepoint to price risk more accurately than traditional lenders, leading to faster approvals and lower default rates.
The ₦1 trillion milestone also reflects broader shifts in Nigeria’s financial ecosystem. As regulators push for greater financial inclusion and digitization, fintech-led lending has emerged as a practical solution to the country’s SME financing gap, which runs into trillions of naira. Moniepoint’s scale demonstrates how infrastructure-first fintechs can channel capital efficiently to the real economy, rather than concentrating on consumer credit alone.
However, the rapid growth of digital lending comes with responsibilities. Sustaining this level of disbursement will require strong risk management, transparent pricing, and close regulatory alignment, especially as economic volatility persists. Moniepoint’s challenge going forward will be to balance growth with resilience while maintaining trust among merchants.
By disbursing ₦1 trillion to 70,000 businesses in 2025, Moniepoint has positioned itself not just as a payments giant, but as a critical enabler of business growth—fueling commerce, supporting jobs, and reshaping how credit reaches Nigeria’s entrepreneurial backbone.
Leave a Reply