Nomba

Nomba spent the past year proving a fairly unglamorous point in a market that usually rewards flashier numbers: that a fintech can lend carefully to small businesses without losing money on the loans. The company, which started life in 2016 as Kudi, a chatbot built to handle financial requests over social media, spent 18 months quietly running a credit pilot with Globus Bank.

The results of that pilot became public in April 2026: Nomba and Globus Bank disclosed they had disbursed ₦21.3 billion to Nigerian businesses across wholesale and retail trade, professional services, food and hospitality, oil and gas, and fast-moving consumer goods, while keeping the non-performing loan ratio below 1%, against a Nigerian banking sector average of 8.03% reported by the Central Bank in January 2026.

That lending pilot has run alongside continued growth in Nomba's core payments business. According to figures the company shared with TechCabal, daily payment volume across its platform grew from roughly ₦7 billion in May 2025 to about ₦250 billion by May 2026, a rise driven largely by the merchant base that also feeds its credit-scoring model.

Unlike several of the larger platforms on this list, Nomba has not pursued a banking licence, a major acquisition, or an international expansion in the past year. Its story instead has been one of narrowing focus: proving out a single credit product carefully in its home market before deciding whether, and how, to scale it.