Lidya, an online financial services platform, officially went live on Monday and is now issuing loans to SMEs. The new website was created by the founders of Africa Courier Express (ACE), Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin.
The founders of Lidya revealed its first product is a receivables based loan aimed at SME, which can range from $500 to $15,000. Each loan is disbursed to qualified customers in 72 hours. The platform also operates a credit scoring algorithm that helps users to build their credit profiles and access highly competitive financing rates and larger loans.
Sharing details about the platform, Tunde Kehinde, co-founder of both Lidya, stated:
“The overall aim of this platform is to tackle the huge issue of financial inclusion in Africa and to help support the continent’s entrepreneurs. With 600 million mobile subscribers and close to 350 million people online in Africa today, it’s clear that mobile-led, technology solutions are the future of financial services in Africa. Lidya will work with SMEs to not only provide capital to grow but also provide data to help entrepreneurs understand and improve the financial health of their businesses.”
Lidya co-founder Ercin Eksin, then added:
“We estimate the credit gap in Africa to be several hundred billion US dollars. To unlock capital for customers that do not have access to credit; innovative financial services backed with world-class customer experience must be developed. Lidya is revolutionizing how risk is assessed and how credit is disbursed. We look forward to helping our customers access the capital they need to fulfil their potential. ”