Defaulting on a loan with some digital lenders can turn into relentless phone calls, frozen accounts, office raids, threats, and, in some cases, public shaming. In 2025, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) introduced fines of up to ₦100 million ($72,000)—or 1% of annual turnover—for lenders who resort to harassment and intimidation as loan recovery tools.
Those defaults, when they pile up, become the bad loans quietly eating into a lender’s balance sheet. Nomba and Globus Bank say their credit model is built to stop that from happening, and the numbers, so far, back them up.
The Nigerian fintech and tier-3 commercial bank said their 18-month credit partnership has disbursed ₦21.3 billion ($15.3 million) to Nigerian businesses, with less than 1% of those loans classified as non-performing. That figure covers lending across wholesale and retail, professional services, food and hospitality, oil and gas, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).
Bad loans are rising across Nigeria’s banking system
Loans are built on the premise that they should be repaid on schedule, and when repayments are delayed beyond the standard 90 days, the loan is classified as non-performing. Non-performing loans (NPLs) affect how much banks can lend: the higher the share of bad loans, the more capital is tied up, and the more cautious lenders become about extending new credit.
NPLs in Nigeria’s banking industry have been rising. In early 2023, the figure stood at 4.2%, but was estimated to reach 7% by the end of 2025. These increases in NPLs are often tied to currency devaluations, inflation, and other economic pressures that make repayment harder for borrowers.
Nomba and Globus Bank said their lending model looks nothing like that. The companies said their portfolio is performing differently because of how their loans were structured and managed.
Instead of relying on traditional methods of assessing creditworthiness that use financial statements and fixed collateral, the partnership said it used a different approach to assessing businesses and tracking loan performance.
“That number did not happen by accident,” said Yinka Adewale, chief executive Officer of Nomba, referring to its NPL ratio. “It happened because we built underwriting infrastructure that actually works, data that is real, collateral that is meaningful, and borrowers who have genuine skin in the game.”
How Nomba and Globus’ credit model works
Under this model, businesses eligible to apply for loans are selected based on how much of their financial activity runs through Nomba.
“Of the over 600,000 businesses we bank in Nigeria today, we internally cap the credit-eligible universe at approximately 20,000,” Adewale said.
He explained that eligible businesses must be formally registered, generate steady transaction volumes, have sufficient history on the platform, and understand debt obligations. Even within that pool, lending is limited. Nomba said it currently serves roughly 10% of those eligible merchants.
Crucially, merchants do not need to submit financial statements when applying for loans. Instead, they are assessed continuously on the transaction data they already generate on Nomba’s infrastructure.
“Nomba underwrites against what businesses actually do, not what they report,” Adewale said. “Nomba sits at the centre of its merchants’ daily transaction activity; it has direct, real-time visibility into revenue flows, settlement patterns, operational cycles, and cost structures.”
That data forms the basis of its credit decisions, replacing the financial audits and credit histories that traditional lenders rely on.
Credit facilities in this model are sized to about 1% of a business’s annual revenue, keeping repayment obligations within a range that should not strain daily operations.
Once loans are disbursed, merchants are continuously monitored on a rolling 30-day basis with the same infrastructure that determined their creditworthiness to monitor changes in revenue that may affect loan repayment.
“The system flags deterioration automatically, before it materialises into a missed payment, and triggers the appropriate response, whether that is a restructure, a borrower conversation, or a recovery action,” Adewale said.
A second pillar of Nomba and Globus’ lending model is what they described as digitised collateral, a mix of inventory tied to the specific loan use case, digital assets such as stocks or stablecoins, and semi-liquid physical assets.
“The mechanism is contractual. Assets are pledged at origination and tied to the credit facility through legal documentation. In a default scenario, those assets form part of the recovery pathway,” Adewale said.
Because digital assets are volatile, borrowers must also provide a 30% cash collateral cover upfront, creating a buffer against sudden value drops. In a default scenario, the pledged assets and the cash cover form the primary recovery pathway.
A model built on visibility
The model’s strength is also its most obvious weakness. Assessing creditworthiness and managing digital collateral works best when a merchant’s financial activity is primarily run on Nomba.
“If we cannot underwrite with confidence, we do not extend credit,” Adewale said, explaining that this forms a major reason why its credit model is capped.
The sub-1% performance of its loans may also be shaped by what it excludes. With only about 20,000 out of over 600,000 businesses considered eligible, and even fewer actually receiving loans, the model is applied to a narrow segment of businesses. Cash-heavy businesses or those operating across multiple platforms are less likely to qualify because they present thinner data trails for Nomba to track.
Even within a tightly controlled model, defaults are not eliminated. If loans go bad in this model, Nomba said its first response is restructuring the loan to align with the business’s current capacity. Where restructuring fails, recovery of the 30% cash cover and pledged digital assets follow.
The structure of Globus Bank’s and Nomba’s partnership is split along institutional strengths. Globus Bank provides capital and operates within its lending licence, while Nomba controls the credit layer, from identifying borrowers to underwriting, real-time monitoring, collateral management, and managing repayment. Risk is also shared between both partners, although Adewale said Nomba carries most of it.
Nomba is presenting this as a blueprint rather than a ceiling. It plans to expand the credit model to other sectors through additional partnerships.
“The next phase involves building a pipeline of institutional credit partnerships, including commercial banks and development finance institutions, with priority expansion into logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing,” Adewale said.
Whether the model scales beyond a tightly controlled merchant base without sacrificing its clean NPL record is the question the next phase of partnerships will have to answer.
