Hi, my name is Chiwete John-Njokanma and I’m the CEO of FINT a Peer to Peer lending platform set to be released in beta next month. I would love to hear your questions/concerns & comments regarding FINT or Peer to Peer lending in general. Thanks
Ah, I’ve been expecting you sir. But unless you want us to review the early access sign up box, there isn’t a lot to be learned about Fint from your current landing page 
Not asking you to edit your site. It will suffice if you would expatiate right here.
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lool No sir, I’m just trying to get a general idea /reasons why people won’t borrow/invest (be scared to use) in a Peer to Peer Lending platform in Nigeria
To what end? You already built one, you must know a lot about and believe in the opportunity already. If we told you that it was doomed to fail, would you go back home and build no more?
At this stage, it is more useful to request engagement and feedback for the product itself than its premise.
Edit: You have built it, right?
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Regards to your first question
Fint is a peer to peer lending platform that matches borrowers(individuals looking for personal/business opportunity loans) looking for loans with investors(institutions, high net worth individuals and retail individuals) looking to earn returns on those investments.
Before a borrower is accepted on the platform, he/she has to undergo a risk assessment(an algorithm we built in-house with supporting data from a National Credit Bureau). Once accepted, some physical kyc(know your customer) is carried out to verify the authenticity of their information.
When that’s done their loan request is made available for investors to invest in. Investors then scour through the platform to invest in borrowers and loan options that fit their investment criteria. There are currently 22 parameters with which they can select from(number of dependents, industry of work, house location). Investors invest in multiples of 20,000 Naira (e.g if you have 200k Naira, you can invest in 10 loans)
The loan tenors are currently fixed at four points; 6,12, 18 and 24 months. The interest rates are currently between 24%-37% .The borrower’s interest rate is fixed for the duration of a loan(something commercial banks and micro-finance banks do not currently do).
All loans WILL be insured by an Insurance company here in Nigeria. If a borrower defaults for three reasons;( loss of life, loss of job and physical disability) the principal and returns of the investor are paid back to the investor by the insurance company.
If there is a default that does not pertain to any of those reasons and FINT cannot recover the investments of the investor(s), we engage a collection agency to recover.
I hope this clarifies things for you?
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And regards to your second your question I see this as a chance to curb fears from potential users, and get them to sign up for the beta (early release)
Yes it is built
Nice Landing Page, can’t see beyond that.
I’m following this.
I’m a lender on harmoney who do p2p lending in Australasia. Provides great rates compared to standard savings and investments.
Should you be able to overcome the minefield of debt collection and enforcing contracts in Nigeria, it’s a huge opportunity.
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Hi, @segunjosh thank you, and yes that’s true. I’m trying to get users(you) to sign up for our beta testing, but I’m also here to answer any questions you have regarding Peer to Peer lending in general.
Okay that’s cool. As soon as ur site is up and running. I think it would be a good start to pentest. Lol
Hi @docneto, thank you for your feedback. Yes, that has been the biggest issue to curb that why we have made our legal agreements airtight to protect the investor, borrower and ourselves. Also, our engagement /partnerships with our legal partners, insurance partner, physical KYC company, and collection agency ensure that we have positioned ourselves for any problems that may arise.
This reminds me of Bitbond and Kiva.
Does the credit bureau you work with cater for first-time borrowers? If not, how do you plan to manage thin-file and first time borrowers?
Without much review, I will advise you differentiate yourself from all the Ponzi schemes and ‘scams’ out there because they all use ‘peer to peer’ lending as their focus.
You will also need necessary authorisation from the SEC, if not you can be banned and or a fraud alert will be issued on your business.
https://pageone.ng/2017/02/16/list-latest-ponzi-scams-nigeria/
Hi, apologies for getting back to you late. No, it does not. Our partnership with the credit bureau offers us a repository of data(only existing transactions) mainly for loan history and existing credit lines. However, we have a proprietary algorithm that analyzes individuals based on three key indexes; whether or not there is existing loan history data on them.
Hi, thanks for the advice. One of the first problems we faced was deciding our process of regulation. We are regulated by the CBN and not the SEC.
Regarding differentiation, we just have to educate and sensitize the market. It is unfortunate that Nigerian’s first introduction to p2p lending was through fraudulent schemes and products. It is our aim to change that by creating lasting success stories from the use of our platform.
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That is good to know. As regards getting lenders and borrowers to believe in your proposition, I think it will be good to grow FINT organically, so instead of pushing marketing, let people join and play by the rules, once you have built a loyal base, then it will be easier to push it to a larger market.
Another suggestion is that new comers must get a guarantor who must be someone trusted on the platform. This is not a referral system but a way of weeding out fraudsters and chronic debtors.
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I agree. Organic growth works. As far as guarantors to weed out chronic debtors and fraudsters; the measure we have set in place already prevents that(physical KYC, National Credit Bureau, and Debt collection agency).
OK, Fintech gradually rising in Nigeria, paylater.ng, Aella Credit, payconect…all are lending platform. Hope yours is gonna be unique
Hi @Pat_nwachukwu, you’re right about the growth of Fintech, and not only in the payments space. The products you mentioned are different from ours. They are participants in the lending process because they lend their own money; technically.
FINT is a marketplace that links both lenders and borrowers. Hypothetically, the mentioned companies can become lenders on the FINT platform.