Nigerian lendtech Fint unleashes loan marketplace
Lagos-based lendtech start-up Fint has powered up offering loans as it seeks to gain a share of the financial inclusion market.
“The better your score, the lower your interest rate and vice versa.”
The firm calls itself the nation’s “first loan marketplace” where it matches lenders looking for “competitive returns with credit-worthy borrowers”.
As reported in May 2017, Fint was one of the ten firms named in Innotribe’s Start-up Challenge Africa. Officially the company was founded in 2016 and it is now up and running with its beta version and looking for customers.
According to Fint, borrowers can get access to loans “as low as 2% per month”. To apply for a loan, users need to answer its set of risk assessment questions and investors will provide the funding.
This “Fint score” is used to analyse the ability of a borrower to pay back. The company explains that it is only when a borrower gets a satisfactory score that he or she can borrow on the platform. “The better your score, the lower your interest rate and vice versa.”
The risk algorithm was built in-house and interfaces with XDS Credit Bureau; which is also located in the country.
XDS supplies loan and personal data of individuals who have borrowed from commercial, mortgage and microfinance banks, finance and leasing houses. Once Fint gets a hold of that information, the algorithm runs an analysis on the risk level of the borrower.
In the event an individual has never accessed a loan from a financial institution, the algorithm analyses information provided by the borrower and matching their history to its “standard archetypes”.
The score analyses three components; personal index, environmental index and a financial/business index. As borrowers continue to take loans on the Fint platform and pay back, “their score will improve”.
These are early days for the firm and it hasn’t provided details on any minimums or maximums that people can borrow.
In terms of investors who provide the money, Fint says it has created a method for them to understand risk and return when investing their money on the platform.
The start-up explains: “In the long run, we can use the Fint score as a standard for credit scoring in Nigeria. We are some steps away from that; but our debt financing platform is a good start.”
The platform is registered with the country’s central bank.
Fint’s CEO and co-founder is Chiwete John-Njokanma. He previously worked at two other firms in Lagos – Kraneum Technology and KosavaDeals.
According to its website, its partners (along with XDS) include Vetiva Capital and Old Mutual, an investment, savings, insurance, and banking group.
A welcome development