Building a financial services platform that offers financing in less than 24 hours to small and medium businesses in emerging markets.
Notable Achievements
- Over 90% of clients have grown their businesses with Lidya's support.
- Disbursed more than 32,500 loans since inception.
- Lidya has a 99% repayment rate of loans issued through our platform
Currently Operating in Four Regions
Press Mentions

June 22, 2019
African Behemoth of 200 Million Awakens to Retail Banking
After years of ignoring consumers, Nigerian lenders are making an unprecedented push into retail banking.
Read on Bloomberg.com »
August 29, 2023
Tunde Kehinde and his business of helping SMEs succeed in Business
The statistics of businesses that succeed are not very encouraging, particularly in Africa. The percentages of those that succeed vary
Read on Nairametrics »
March 21, 2022
Tunde Kehinde, CEO of Lidya, has been listed as one of the Top 50 Financial Technology CEOs of 2022
Read on The Financial Technology Report. »
September 17, 2020
A conversation with Tunde Kehinde of Lidya on finance and the digital divide
Small and medium businesses have been some of the hardest hit in the COVID-19 pandemic. And all that has been as true in emerging markets as it has been for SMBs in the developed world. Tunde...
Read on TechCrunch »
March 20, 2020
How one company is hoping to help small businesses thrive in Africa - CNN Video
CNN's Zain Asher speaks with Tunde Kehinde, the co-founder of Lidya, about how he hopes technology can make investments accessible for small African businesses.
Read on CNN »
December 1, 2019
CAPITALIZING THE CORNER SHOP
What a fintech startup mobilizing mom-and-pop lending in Nigeria can tell us about innovation in emerging markets
Read on Harvard Business School »More Ventures in New Frontiers
Get the Unreasonable Newsletter
Get monthly updates on Lidya and over 370 other ventures working to solve the world's toughest problems.