Press Release: Nigerian Fintech start-up, Social Lender partners with CGAP to explore the use of social data for Financial Inclusion in Nigeria
A large share of the poor in Nigeria lack access to credit to support their livelihoods, build assets, or access quick cash in case of an unexpected emergency.
Social Lender in partnership with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) is launching a pilot to test the predictive power of social data generated from mobile, online and social media platforms on loan repayment behaviour of low income earners who have little or no access to formal credit.
Social Lender is among a restricted group of partners that CGAP selected among nearly 200 firms and organizations that submitted proposals for digital innovations that have the most potential to advance financial inclusion in Africa.
The partnership with CGAP provides a platform to explore the use of digital-enabled lending systems, focusing on using USSD as the application model for Users with feature phones in Nigeria. The pilot will make available access to digital credit to the poor to help them meet liquidity gaps that typically arise due to unexpected needs (e.g., healthcare expenditures) or from the irregular nature of their income. The partnership also aims to better understand the impact of financial education on borrowers’ creditworthiness and loan repayment practices.
In partnership with Sterling Bank, Social Lender has been using its proprietary Social Reputation Scoring and Social Guarantor Model in providing access to quick cash to thousands of people in Nigeria via Web and SMS platforms.
In South Africa, Social Lender is helping financial inclusion by enabling alternative lending products where its partner bank (ABSA, a member of Barclays Africa) is able to give credit to customers with limited credit history. As a result, ABSA was recently shortlisted as a finalist in the Gartner’s Eye on Innovation Awards 2017 in the ‘Most innovative digital business model’ category.
