As Nigeria’s traditional banking giants pull back—bruised by record-high interest rates and a spike in loan defaults—a new titan is stepping into the gap. Moniepoint Inc. has revealed that it disbursed more than N1 trillion ($625 million approx.) in credit to small businesses in 2025, proving that in the new economy, transaction data is more valuable than land titles.
The milestone highlights a widening divide: while commercial bank credit to the private sector contracted to N75.8 trillion by late 2025, fintech platforms are aggressively scaling to keep the nation’s informal economy alive.
The Lending Gap: Banks vs. Fintechs
Traditional lenders spent much of 2025 in a defensive crouch. Faced with a 27.50% Monetary Policy Rate and a 45% Cash Reserve Ratio, banks prioritized blue-chip corporate accounts and secured facilities, leaving SMEs to fend for themselves.
Moniepoint’s strategy flipped the script. By leveraging its role as Nigeria’s largest merchant acquirer—powering 8 out of every 10 in-person payments—the company used real-time cash flow and payment patterns to bypass traditional credit scores.
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The Result: Credit flowed to the “overlooked”—provision stores, building material traders, and local supermarkets.
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The Impact: Businesses that tapped into Moniepoint’s credit saw an average 36% spike in growth, transforming survivalist hustles into scaling enterprises.
Fueling the Engine: A $200M Global Endorsement
Moniepoint’s aggressive lending was backed by a massive capital injection. In late 2025, the firm secured over $200 million in Series C funding, achieving “unicorn” status. The round was a “who’s who” of global finance, including Google’s Africa Investment Fund, Visa, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
This war chest allowed the company to:
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Upgrade its Infrastructure: Processing N412 trillion in transaction value during the year.
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Expand its Ecosystem: Launching Moniebook (an all-in-one bookkeeping and payment tool) and scaling Monnify, its web gateway which processed N25 trillion.
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Go Global: Establishing MonieWorld in the UK to capture the multi-billion dollar diaspora remittance market.
The New Financial Infrastructure
“Our mission is to solve problems that traditional systems overlook,” says CEO Tosin Eniolorunda. In a country where 83% of employment lives in the informal sector, Moniepoint is no longer just a “fintech startup”; it is rapidly becoming the quasi-infrastructure of the Nigerian economy.
As the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) pushes for a trillion-dollar economy by 2030, the success of the N1 trillion lending experiment suggests that the path to that goal won’t be paved with traditional bank loans, but with the digital data generated by millions of everyday entrepreneurs.
