Click to watchLidya, the Nigerian digital lender once celebrated as a pioneer in Africa’s fintech space, has shut down operations after nearly a decade of highs and lows.
Former Jumia executives, Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, launched Lidya in 2016 before the likes of FairMoney, a credit-led neobank founded in 2017.
First reported by TechPoint, an email to customers read, “Despite best efforts to restructure and sustain operations, the Company has encountered severe financial distress and is no longer able to continue in business. As a result, the Company has ceased all operations”.
Indeed, Condia’s own checks reveal that their website, Lidya.info, is no longer accessible, their Twitter page has been suspended, and their LinkedIn page has no posts.
When Lidya launched, it promised something radical: small and medium-sized businesses could access fast, collateral-free loans using only their digital records. In its early years, it filled a vital gap in Nigeria’s credit market, offering flexible working capital to traders, retailers, and service providers who were locked out of traditional bank loans. Investors were impressed. Between 2017 and 2021, the company raised about $16.45 million, including an $8.3 million pre-Series B round that fueled dreams of continental dominance.
At its peak, Lidya claimed to have reviewed over $50 billion worth of credit applications and disbursed more than $150 million to 32,000 small businesses. The company’s promise seemed boundless. It even ventured beyond Africa, setting up operations in Poland and the Czech Republic in 2020. The European expansion was meant to diversify income and test its credit-scoring technology in mature markets.
But the move turned out to be costly. As the company scaled overseas, operational expenses ballooned and profitability lagged. By 2023, Lidya quietly exited both European markets, announcing a “renewed focus on Nigeria.” At the time, CEO Tunde Kehinde said Nigeria’s tech-savvy environment was the ideal base for its next phase. That pivot led to the launch of Lidya Collect, a loan recovery and repayment management platform for businesses.
Lidya Collect was supposed to help companies recover debts faster and improve repayment rates. But within months, cracks began to show. Users started complaining about frozen funds and failed transactions. By early 2024, some customers reported that money collected through the platform had been stuck for months. Others said they were forced to chase debtors because Lidya could no longer process payments manually. For many, the losses ran into millions of naira.
Behind the scenes, the company was unravelling. According to Techpoint Africa, the Portugal-based engineering team went months without pay between May and September 2024 and eventually resigned en masse. Soon after, the Chief Technology Officer, Cristiano Machado, left in September 2024, followed by Tunde Kehinde in October 2024. Their exits left a leadership vacuum at a time when the platform needed urgent fixes.
Lidya’s troubles reflected deeper issues within the African fintech ecosystem. The company depended heavily on investor funding, and by 2023, the global venture-capital slowdown had dried up fresh capital. Without new funds, Lidya struggled to service existing debts and maintain operations. Its attempt to pivot from lending to payment collection came too late and failed to restore cash flow.
By mid-2025, most customers would no longer be able to access their wallets or withdraw funds. Support emails went unanswered. Internally, the company explored restructuring, but no investor rescue materialised. In its final communication to users, Lidya admitted it could not process funds or settle claims due to financial constraints. The message confirmed what many already suspected—the company had reached the end of the road.
Lidya’s collapse is a sobering lesson for Africa’s fast-growing fintech industry. It ends as a cautionary tale about how fast-moving fintechs can stumble when growth outpaces governance. In a market built on trust, losing it is fatal.
Click to watch
