Moni, a digital platform based in Nigeria that leverages social trust and group responsibility to deliver financial services, has launched a new range of business loans. These loans are designed to help market traders, spare part dealers, textile traders, and other African small business owners access the working capital they need to run and scale their businesses, by harnessing the power of their communities.
Femi Iromini, CEO and co-founder of Moni, stated that the company's community-powered business loans product is just one of the ways to innovate around a unique context in Africa, to deliver the financial services business owners need to create long-term wealth for themselves and their communities. "We have plenty of evidence that this approach works, and we are excited to be bringing on more businesses to drive the economic development that we all want to see on the continent," he said.
According to the African Development Bank (AfDB), SMEs account for more than 90% of businesses and nearly 80% of employment in Africa. However, a $421 billion credit gap has resulted from insufficient data and ineffective credit decisions by traditional financial institutions, leaving business owners unable to access the working capital they require to scale.
Moni has created a risk engine that combines financial data and business performance with social intelligence to help African SMEs make better credit decisions, starting with small business owners in Nigeria.
The company is building on the success of its community-powered model to bring game-changing financial services to a wider range of African SMEs that were not adequately served by the traditional financial system, it also piloted community-powered loans to 3,000 mobile money agents in August 2021, and executed more than $22 million in loans to over 11,000 SMEs, with a repayment rate of 99% in 2022.
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