Uplinq changes the lending landscape for African SMEs

By Edlyn Cardoza

Transformational small business credit assessment platform and data provider Uplinq Financial Technologies has recently announced a new partnership with African technology and business solutions company, Nosmay as part of its plans to help credit-lenders better serve the continent’s significant unbanked population.

According to a recent report published by the World Bank, around 1.7 billion unbanked individuals live in the world today. The issue places a particular economic strain on continents like Africa, where approximately 50% of people are unbanked. Unfortunately, unbanked individuals are often deprived of access to crucial financial services, such as credit lending and other forms of financial assistance.

With its novel FinTech platform, Uplinq provides an inclusive solution to this complex challenge. The Company’s global credit assessment platform offers the continent’s small business lenders greater access to relevant data on their customers’ creditworthiness. With expert support from Nosmay, Uplinq aims to spread its service across multiple nations in the region.

Speaking about the new partnership, Ishmael Yamson, Chief Executive Officer at Nosmay, commented: “Many businesses in Africa function without maintaining diligent financial records, or without establishing a relationship with a national bank. We often refer to this as the ‘informal economy’, but it’s more appropriate to call it the unbanked economy. Sadly, these businesses are often underserved by financial institutions.

“By going beyond traditional data points when assessing a business’ creditworthiness, Uplinq’s technology could soon change the landscape of credit lending across Africa. The company’s solution provides a much-needed link between the continent’s sizeable unbanked population and its well-established financial services sector. In doing so, the solution solves a longstanding problem. With time, I hope the solution is able to impact the lives of millions of families in underserved communities.”

Speaking on the partnership, Ron Benegbi, founder and CEO of Uplinq, commented: “It’s exciting to partner with a company like Nosmay, with a proven track record of delivering measurable and value driven technology solutions across Africa. By combining their experience with our groundbreaking technology, we believe we’ll be able to help all small businesses across the continent gain greater access to financial inclusion and fair lending practices at a time of crucial need.”

Powered by its AI engine, Uplinq’s technology provides small business lenders with the confidence they need to make an accurate credit decision by analyzing billions of unique and validated data signals. A foundational component of the technology has been used to underwrite over $1.4 trillion in loans over the past decade. Together, Nosmay and Uplinq are now working to onboard the technology with major African banking groups and telecommunication companies.