MTN Nigeria has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and credit bureaus to recognise telecommunications records, utility payments and digital transaction history in assessing loan applications by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) without conventional collateral.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Karl Toriola, said that integrating alternative data into the credit system would help millions of small businesses currently excluded from formal lending because they lack audited financial statements, banking histories or acceptable collateral.
Speaking at the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) lecture series in Abuja, Toriola called for a shift from traditional lending requirements to cash flow-based assessments that reflect how small businesses operate.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria and our national credit bureaus must integrate alternative data, like telecommunications records and airtime consumption. Utility payments and digital point-of-sale transaction footprints should be given equal statutory weight to traditional banking records,” he said.
Toriola explained that MTN already uses customers’ network tenure, monthly spending and recharge frequency to assess creditworthiness and extend loans without requiring physical collateral.
He cited a PwC 2024 MSME survey that estimated Nigeria’s financing gap for small businesses at $32.2billion, equivalent to about N13trillion, with 35 per cent of respondents identifying access to finance as their biggest growth challenge.
He added that fewer than one in 20 small and medium enterprises could secure loans from traditional banks, while research by fintech firm, Moniepoint, indicated that more than half of informal businesses avoided formal borrowing and had no plans to apply for loans.
According to the MTN CEO, high interest rates, rigid collateral requirements and conventional lending procedures have made it extremely difficult for many viable businesses to access credit.
“These businesses are effectively the missing middle. They are locked out because traditional financial products are fundamentally misaligned with their operational structures,” he said.
Proposing a solution to the problem, Toriola advocated risk-sharing arrangements involving the DBN, Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation and other credit support institutions so as to encourage lenders to extend cash flow-based loans to underserved businesses.
He also called for a federally backed digital infrastructure linking National Identification Numbers, Bank Verification Numbers and Corporate Affairs Commission registrations to simplify business verification and credit assessment.
The Permanent Secretary, Political and Economic Affairs Office, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mrs. Bekearedebo Augusta Warrens, who represented the SGF, said access to finance should be matched with affordable borrowing costs, reliable markets and capacity to repay.
“Access to finance, which is one of the pains of small businesses in Nigeria, must not stop at the level of approval of a loan,” she said.
Warrens pointed out that expensive credit and weak demand for products could turn loans into additional burdens rather than opportunities for growth.
She added that small businesses also needed reliable infrastructure, appropriate technology, technical skills and market access to make productive use of financing, urging lenders and development partners to adopt flexible lending arrangements while ensuring proper monitoring.
The Managing Director of DBN, Dr. Tony Okpanachi, said the bank had disbursed N1.4 trillion to MSMEs through 84 participating financial institutions as of December 2025, supporting the creation of over 1.6 million jobs.
He added that the bank’s wholesale financing model, partial credit guarantees and capacity-building programmes were designed to encourage financial institutions to lend to businesses they might otherwise consider too risky.
Under its new five-year strategy, DBN plans to reach more than two million MSMEs, with targeted support for women-led businesses, youth-led enterprises and underserved states.
Okpanachi maintained that the bank was also strengthening support for women entrepreneurs through its D.O.N. initiative, which combines financing, credit guarantees, technical assistance, grants and market linkages.
He urged financial institutions to expand lending to underserved sectors and states, adding that the success of economic reforms should be measured by their impact on businesses, particularly access to affordable loans with repayment periods that support investment and expansion.
