Lidya, a US-based financial technology (fintech) firm that has provided digital loans in Nigeria, the Czech Republic and Poland, recently announced it will shift its focus to providing technology infrastructure to financial institutions. Lidya’s credit platform helps lenders “originate, manage and collect loans,” including via the Collect tool, which is intended to maximize repayment rates. Among the partners to which the firm provides these services is the US-based nonprofit Accion, whose partners disbursed 8 million loans during 2021.
The CEO of Lidya, Tunde Kehinde, reportedly said, “Lidya started as a digital lender… with a 1-percent default rate. However, we realised that the demand for credit (over USD 300 billion credit gap in Nigeria alone) could not be satisfied by one lender… [so] Lidya started opening its credit infrastructure to allow any business seeking to give credit to: a) acquire customers; b) originate loans; and c) collect digital credit with the secure, flexible infrastructure they can deploy today.”
Founded in 2016 by Mr Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, Lidya’s mission is to improve growth opportunities for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The firm is registered in the US and Luxembourg, and it operates a technology office in Portugal. It has issued approximately 32,000 loans totaling approximately USD 100 million since its inception.
By Ben Barba, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Business Insider Africa article
https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/lidyas-collect-tool-and-mission-to-unlock-credit-for-africans-a-fintech-success-story/rvlxrfk
Lidya homepage
https://www.lidya.info/
Accion homepage
https://accion.org/
Previous MicroCapital story on Accion
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-accion-sturgeon-lead-6-4m-equity-round-for-trukkr-fintech-serving-trucking-smes-in-pakistan/
Previous MicroCapital story on Lidya
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-fintech-lidya-expanding-msme-lending-to-czech-republic-poland/
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