Credit Direct has been lending to Nigerians since 2007, and after nearly two decades in the business, the FCMB Group subsidiary is ready to do more than hand out loans. At Moonshot by TechCabal in Lagos, Victoria Arinze, the company's product marketing lead, laid out a vision where credit follows the customer into the places they already shop, pay, and do business. That shift has a name: embedded finance, and Credit Direct wants to be the engine behind it.
The idea is straightforward. Instead of asking someone to walk into a financial institution to apply for credit, the loan comes to them, woven into the platforms and merchant experiences they use every day. "We are primarily a credit organisation, and that has not changed and will never change," Arinze said. "What we've realised, however, is that credit really is not the end of how a person's finances is built. When you give them credit, they then need to live their life."
The numbers behind that philosophy are telling. Credit Direct's 2025 Nigeria Credit Landscape Report, built on data from more than 300,000 borrowers, found that the average loan amount on its platform jumped 23.5% to 449,178 naira, roughly $326.75, in 2025. The top three reasons customers borrowed: rent, medical bills, and school fees. These are not luxury purchases. They are the costs of staying afloat.
On the business side, Credit Direct is pushing into SME financing through a newer product called CreditDirect Business. It offers general-purpose loans, invoice-backed financing, and loan purchase order contract financing, with up to 50 million naira available to eligible businesses. This matters in a continent where Africa's 50 million small and medium-sized enterprises face a funding gap estimated at more than $330 billion. Arinze is candid that the product is still finding its feet, with customer feedback shaping how it evolves.
Arinze was careful to frame Credit Direct's ambitions without picking a fight. "We're not really looking to outbank the banks or out-fintech the fintechs. It's really the people at the end of the day." That kind of measured confidence is worth watching, especially as more players crowd into the embedded finance space across Africa.
Originally published by TechCabal.