Introduction: Nigeria’s Lending Problem Isn’t Money, It’s Data
Nigerian lenders lose tens of billions of naira every year because they cannot accurately assess borrower risk.
It’s not that people don’t want to repay loans, it’s that lenders simply cannot determine who is trustworthy, who is risky, and who is stuck in the grey area known as “thin-file customers.”
A thin-file customer is someone with very little digital financial history. Most Nigerians fall into this category, despite earning income, paying rent, supporting families, and running small businesses.
Meanwhile, lenders face:
- high default rates
- poor credit scoring accuracy
- massive fraud attempts
- limited data visibility
- fragmented borrower histories
But there is one highly predictive data point lenders have never fully used in Nigeria:
Rent payment behavior.
Think about it.
If someone consistently pays ₦350k, ₦500k, ₦800k, or ₦1.2million in rent annually, that person has financial discipline.
That person is managing a significant annual obligation. That person can almost certainly repay a mid-sized loan, if evaluated properly.
iRent brings this missing, high-value data to lenders in a structured, verified, and credit-ready form.