Lidya, a credit facilitator startup that is based in Nigeria creates access to credit facility for SMEs in the country, within 48 hours.
Founded in 2016 by Ercin Eksin and Tunde Kehinde, the startup leverages technology and credit-scoring smart algorithms to ascertain applicants before a facility is rolled out. Lidya focuses on SMEs, to support them with funds that can help them scale their business.
It is glaring that fund is one of the important things needed to run a business and most times, access to funds is not easy to come by for MSMEs in Nigeria. Over time, MSMEs had to rely on banks to offer the loan facility. Unfortunately, these banks rarely give out loans to MSMEs, because they lack the necessary collateral required to access the facility.
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Lidya however, intends to bridge this gap with its algorithm process. The process scores each applicant, and Lydia leverages this score to provide a credit facility of about $150 to $50,000 to MSMEs. Lidya offers its loan to applicants without collateral, in a space of 48 hours and at an interest rate of 3.5%.
The company has since its inception disbursed over 2,000 business loans to MSMEs across the farming, hospitality, logistics, retail, real estate, technology, and health sectors. It has also raised $8.2 million in funding. The round was led by Omidya Network and will be used to scale its loan book across Nigeria and Africa.
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