Moniepoint's Tosin Eniolorunda Says Nigerian Lenders Should Bet on Cash Flow, Not Collateral, as Formal Credit Use Jumps to 10%

Lagos lending desks have a habit of asking a market trader for a landed title before they will look at her ledger. Moniepoint's chief executive thinks that habit is the single biggest reason Nigeria's small businesses stay outside the formal credit system — and he is using fresh survey data to argue that the collateral reflex is now costing the economy more than it protects banks.

Speaking after the release of the EFInA 2026 Access to Financial Services in Nigeria survey, Moniepoint Group CEO Tosin Eniolorunda made the case that lenders should judge businesses on how they earn and move money rather than what they can pledge. The numbers give him ammunition. Formal credit use among Nigerian adults climbed to 10 per cent in 2026 from 6 per cent in 2023, while formal financial inclusion reached 73 per cent — roughly 87.2 million adults — up from 64 per cent three years earlier and past the 70 per cent target in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. The EFInA study covered 18,679 adults across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with fieldwork between April and June 2026.

For readers who do not track Nigeria daily, Moniepoint is one of the country's most visible fintechs, built on the agency banking terminals that turned thousands of corner shops into cash-in, cash-out points. It now styles itself as a business bank for the informal economy, and its lending arm is the engine behind the argument. The company says it disbursed more than $700 million to micro, small and medium enterprises in 2025, with three out of four borrowers taking formal business credit for the first time. Those are company-reported figures and have not been independently verified. Moniepoint also says women make up 36 per cent of its loan book, against an industry benchmark of 15 to 25 per cent, and that its own survey found 83 per cent of users reported a better quality of life while 85 per cent felt more confident about reaching their financial goals.

The wider picture is less flattering than the headline inclusion number. Formal inclusion sits at 85 per cent in urban areas but only 58 per cent in rural ones; the South West records 96.4 per cent against 61.4 per cent in the North East. EFInA's own leadership has been careful to say access should no longer be the sole measure of progress. Its research lead, Dr Oluwatomi Eromosele, has argued that existing financial relationships should become pathways to credit, protection, investment and financial security. The survey also found that the credit being extended increasingly finances short-term needs rather than productive activity — which puts underwriting quality, not access alone, at the centre of the debate.

That is where Eniolorunda's trust line lands. "Access to financial services means little without trust," he said, pressing the case for transaction data to sit at the heart of lending decisions. The pitch is straightforward: a trader who moves money every day through a payment terminal generates a richer credit file than a borrower with a dusty title deed and no turnover. Moniepoint argues that spreading cash flow-based lending across the sector could move Nigeria closer to the 40 per cent formal credit penetration target in the National Financial Inclusion Strategy. The counter-argument writes itself — transaction data can be gamed, thin files can mislead, and consumer protection is thin — but the direction of travel is hard to dispute when 60.4 million adults remain financially vulnerable even after inclusion gains.

Watch whether Nigeria's commercial banks, which still dominate the credit market, adopt the same logic or leave the field to fintechs. If cash flow becomes the underwriting standard, the winners will be the businesses that have always had revenue but never had title deeds — and the lenders that learn to read them.