Moniepoint, a Nigerian fintech company, has called for wider adoption of cash-flow-based lending to expand access to formal credit for underserved entrepreneurs, following findings by Enhancing Financial Innovation and Access (EFInA) that formal credit access in Nigeria has nearly doubled to 10 percent since 2023.
The company said its lending model, which assesses borrowers based on how their businesses generate and move money rather than relying primarily on collateral, could help more small business owners access formal credit, particularly women in trade and agriculture.
The call comes as EFInA’s Access to Financial Services in Nigeria (A2F) 2026 Survey showed that formal financial inclusion had reached 73 percent, covering an estimated 87.2 million adults, while formal credit penetration remained at 10 percent nationally.
Moniepoint said extending cash-flow-based underwriting across the financial sector could help close the gap in credit access and move Nigeria closer to the National Financial Inclusion Strategy’s target of 40 percent formal credit penetration.
The A2F survey, conducted in partnership with the National Bureau of Statistics across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, drew on more than 18,600 interviews conducted between April and June 2026.
The findings also showed significant gains in financial inclusion among women business owners and farmers. Formal inclusion among women business owners rose from 67.5 percent to 76.3 percent, while the rate among women farmers increased from 42.7 percent to 53.6 percent.
Moniepoint said these improvements aligned with its focus on reaching business owners who have historically struggled to obtain credit through conventional lending channels.
The company also highlighted the survey’s findings on trust, which showed that 96.9 percent of adults who trusted their financial service providers had conducted a transaction within the previous 90 days, compared with 65.6 percent of those who did not trust their providers.
The 31.3-percentage-point difference underscores the importance of trust in encouraging the active use of financial services, beyond simply providing access to them.
Tosin Eniolorunda, co-founder and group chief executive officer of Moniepoint, said access to financial services meant little without trust in the institutions providing them.
“Building that trust has been central to how we operate at Moniepoint, and the results bear this out: 83 percent of our users report an improved quality of life, and 85 percent report greater confidence in achieving their financial goals,” Eniolorunda said.
He added that combining access with reliability could help people manage their finances with greater confidence and build more stable economic lives.
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Delivering a goodwill message on behalf of Moniepoint at the survey’s launch, Edidiong Uwemakpan, the company’s vice president of corporate affairs, described EFInA’s survey as a key benchmark for measuring financial inclusion in Africa.
She said the findings challenged fintech companies, commercial banks and policymakers to go beyond expanding access and develop financial services that deliberately address the needs of underserved Nigerians.
“Data provides the compass, but collective execution builds the road,” Uwemakpan said.
Moniepoint said the survey would guide the next phase of its inclusive lending strategy, with continued emphasis on entrepreneurs, particularly women in trade and agriculture, through its cash-flow-based lending approach.
The company added that it would continue working with EFInA and financial sector regulators to translate the findings into solutions that expand credit access for Nigerian entrepreneurs.
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Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.
