Smartphone penetration has gone beyond 60%, digital payments have become a daily reflex, and the informal economy, long treated as invisible, now moves billions through phone screens never worth more than a mid-range Android.

And into this jumbled but opportunity-ripe market steps Credlock, a company working to change how Africans access credit by turning the smartphone into collateral. What looks like a small technological shift is, in truth, a structural challenge to decades of exclusion.

Credlock is solving this challenge by providing credit for people who have income, but no collateral. Nigerians who earn every single day but cannot afford a lot of necessities. Retail workers who never qualify for formal loans. POS agents who keep communities afloat but cannot borrow ₦20,000 without risking harassment. Traders who are forced to sell the very phone they use for business simply to raise short-term cash.

Speaking during an interview with Techeconomy, Temidayo Fabayo, the co-founder and CEO, explained, “The smartphone is now the most universal asset in Africa. It is valuable, it is portable, it is enforceable, and it is widespread.” 

And because of that, he argues, the continent finally has a form of collateral that ordinary people actually possess.

A Market Ripe for Reinvention

Fabayo elaborated that this moment did not arrive by accident. “There are basically a number of ingredients that are needed to make smartphone-backed credit work. Over the last few years, those ingredients have aligned,” he explained. 

Smartphones are now ubiquitous even among informal workers. Mobile devices have become identity tools, work devices, payment gateways and lifelines. Nigerians are accustomed to structured repayments; from airtime loans to Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). And, importantly, the device itself is enforceable.

It means a mechanic in Ibadan with no credit history can now walk into a Credlock merchant’s shop, value a device he already owns, and access three-to-six-month credit at rates far below the punitive 30-day digital-loan cycle.

The point, Fabayo says, is affordability.
In his words: “The cost of credit drops significantly… in many cases, customers pay up to three times less than what some of the cheapest digital lenders currently charge.”

From Used Phones to a Credit Infrastructure

Credlock did not begin as a lending business.
Years ago, the founders built Fairshop, a platform designed to digitise Nigeria’s used-mobile-phone market. What they observed changed everything.

People were not only selling old phones, they were also selling good phones simply to meet tiny cash needs.

Fabayo recalls it vividly: “We had people who… needed just ₦10,000 to pay a medical bill or ₦15,000 to get out of a last-mile emergency. They would offer to sell their phones because they had no other sources of cash.” 

From this came an idea: instead of letting people liquidate their phones, why not let the phones stand as collateral?

The decision unlocked an entire lending model.

With more than 1,500 merchants across 33 states, Credlock already had a nationwide distribution network from its device-finance operations. Those merchants became instant origination points for smartphone-backed microloans, an agentless model that removed the need for the expensive armies of field agents used by competitors.

“We are the first agentless model in Africa… We do not import devices or manage inventory. Our platform allows merchants to retail any phone using credit,” Fabayo broke it down.

This is one of Credlock’s biggest advantages: the company sits inside existing market behaviour rather than trying to replace it.

Who Borrows; and Why They Pay

Credlock’s typical customer is anyone the banks do not fully see: traders, artisans, junior civil servants, POS operators, delivery riders, and gig workers. People with cash flow but no formal collateral.

Loan sizes range from ₦10,000 to ₦50,000, increasing with repayment discipline.

Essentially, repayment behaviour has been strong.
“The smartphone is essential to daily life,” Fabayo says, explaining why borrowers are motivated to pay. 

Instead of punitive one-month cycles, Credlock offers longer tenures. Borrowers can restructure. Harassment is not part of the model.

And over time, repeat borrowing has surged, driven by word-of-mouth from satisfied customers who realise that cheaper credit is finally possible.

Fabayo says “In the 18 months that we’ve been in operation, we’ve seen our NPL rates at low single digits, less than 5%.” 

It is an outcome built from deterrence, fairness and the psychological weight of losing one’s smartphone, an asset far more important to life than many lenders appreciate.

The Technology Under the Innovation

Credlock’s system rests on three layers:

1. Collateral Scoring: AI-enabled evaluation of a device’s model, condition and diagnostics, including battery health.
2. Device Collateral System: a secure Android-based digital lien (a technology-based claim or lock placed on a device, usually a smartphone, that acts as collateral for a loan) that acts as a deterrent without intruding on private data.
   Fabayo stressed that “It’s not intrusive, and we combine it with the ability to manage the entire loan lifecycle.”
   Merchant & API Infrastructure: technology that links merchants, lenders, OEMs and financial institutions into a single credit-delivery engine.

The long-term vision is bigger than lending. “We are not a loan app with a feature. We are a credit infrastructure layer.” 

It is a goal to become the trust layer for Africa’s emerging collateralised-microcredit market.

Funding, CREDICORP/eFinance and the Growth

Smartphone-backed credit is capital-intensive, so Credlock’s growth has required debt partnerships. This includes a facility under CREDICORP/eFinance’s SCALE initiative, which supports borrowers needing between ₦10,000 and ₦120,000.

Fabayo explained, “We can’t do it by ourselves, what we are building is a trust layer for the lending ecosystem.” 

The company is also in conversations with additional lenders and has begun preliminary talks toward a seed round to strengthen infrastructure and expand across Africa.

The Coming Leap: Smartphone-Backed Credit Cards

Another commendable initiative is underway: a credit card secured by the user’s smartphone.

Why a card?
Because cards are used for everyday spending including food, emergencies, and working capital for micro-businesses, allowing differentiated pricing.

Fabayo explains the logic, “If you are extracting cash, it’s at a higher cost. If you are using your card to pay for food, it’s at a lower cost.” 

This is a product that completely enhances how the informal economy should interact with financial tools.

Credlock is strengthening its presence through merchants in urban and peri-urban centres while preparing entry into Ghana, whose smartphone and credit behaviours are similar to Nigeria’s. The company intends to expand to more African markets where the smartphone is emerging as both a tool and a financial identity.

A Future Where Credit Begins with a Phone

Fabayo sees a continental change already taking shape.
“We see a future where device collateralised credit becomes the on-ramp for people into the broader credit ecosystem.” 

If Credlock succeeds, millions of Africans will build their financial history through devices they use every hour of the day, not through collateral they do not own.

Credit will no longer be tied to land titles or other properties. In Africa, where people sell their phones to solve tomorrow’s problems, that might be exactly what we have been waiting for.

The post How Credlock Turns Smartphones into Instant Collateral – Unlocking Fair Credit for Millions appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

VitalSwap provides a Stripe-like alternative for freelancers, remote workers, digital entrepreneurs, and small businesses across Africa who have historically been excluded from accessing international payment platforms. 

The platform allows users to open foreign business accounts denominated in United States dollars, British pounds, and euros under their registered company names. Through these accounts, they can receive payments, convert currencies, and withdraw earnings locally.

Mr Jegede said the platform emerged out of necessity after years of frustration with global payment systems that routinely exclude African users. 

“VitalSwap gives African freelancers and startups a way to receive money globally, convert it easily, and manage their businesses without relying on platforms that don’t support their countries,” he explained.

Global platforms like Stripe and PayPal remain unavailable or partially restricted in many African nations, hindering the continent’s vast digital talent pool from participating in international trade. 

For African professionals offering services in areas such as software development, design, marketing, or consulting, receiving payments from foreign clients remains a logistical challenge, one that often forces them to rely on informal and high-risk payment channels.

VitalSwap seeks to eliminate these roadblocks by offering a platform built with African realities in mind.

The service integrates an artificial intelligence-powered compliance engine that automates KYC (Know Your Customer), KYB (Know Your Business), and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) processes. 

This ensures users can be verified quickly and securely, meeting international regulatory standards without compromising user experience.

“Our onboarding process ensures that African businesses are fully compliant with global financial standards while maintaining simplicity and accessibility,” Mr Jegede added.

Currently in its early rollout phase, VitalSwap has onboarded a pilot group of users and opened a public waitlist for wider access. 

According to Mr Jegede, the reception has been overwhelmingly positive, with early adopters praising the platform’s ease of use, transparent currency conversion, and speed of withdrawals.

The company said its vision goes beyond payments. It is building a holistic financial infrastructure that supports the ambitions of Africa’s remote workers and digital businesses, who often operate at a disadvantage due to limited access to trusted financial tools.

As the continent’s digital economy continues to grow bolstered by remote work opportunities, digital exports, and an expanding tech ecosystem experts say the need for accessible global financial infrastructure will become even more pressing.

“Too many African businesses and freelancers have been shut out of global opportunities not because of a lack of talent or ambition, but because of payment restrictions. VitalSwap bridges that gap,” the company stated.

Mr Jegede concluded that VitalSwap’s ultimate goal is to democratise financial access and empower a generation of African professionals who deserve to compete and thrive on a global scale.

The post VitalSwap Gets Approval to Provide Cross-Border Payment Service for Professionals appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

With 25.9 million Nigerians now using digital assets, representing an 11.9% market penetration, the country’s embrace of blockchain-powered finance is being impacted by challenges such as inflation, currency instability, and inaccessible traditional banking. 

For many, stablecoins have become a tool to survive, offering a safer, faster, and more predictable way to send money, save in hard currency, or simply transact across borders.

According to Yellow Card, “Stablecoins have become an increasingly critical tool for Africans seeking more efficient and accessible financial solutions. Nowhere is this more evident than in Nigeria. Nigeria’s leadership in stablecoin adoption and digital asset usage is not just a tech milestone; it’s a signal of how financial innovation can thrive in response to local needs. The rest of Africa is clearly following.”

Africa now leads the world in stablecoin adoption at 9.3%, with over 54 million digital asset users across the continent. But Nigeria’s position in this ecosystem is quite interesting. 

Despite a history of regulatory issues, including restrictions from the Central Bank, Nigerians have turned to decentralised finance in droves, driven by a need to bypass currency devaluation and costly remittance systems.

The report lists nine other African nations in the global top 50 for digital asset adoption, including Ethiopia (26th), Morocco (27th), Kenya (28th), and South Africa (30th). 

Interestingly, countries with strict regulatory environments, such as Algeria and Egypt, still see high user numbers. Egypt and Morocco, for instance, are estimated to have over 17 million users combined, despite lacking fully established legal frameworks.

Regulatory bodies across the continent are now working to keep up with the increasing usage; from draft legislation and pilot regulatory sandboxes to fully operational frameworks for virtual asset service providers (VASPs), the sector is changing quickly. 

Some nations are also testing Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) to tackle goals like financial inclusion and monetary stability.

There is an obvious tension between regulation and innovation. While some countries embrace decentralised tools as a path to resilience, others tread cautiously, risking stifling innovation altogether. 

Yellow Card’s report warns that CBDC development, while important, often drags compared to the fast-paced growth of private digital assets.

“While regulatory frameworks remain uneven across the continent, the momentum is clearly shifting toward formal recognition and oversight of digital assets,” the report noted.

Yellow Card projects that clearer rules could attract investment and accelerate financial inclusion, helping bridge Africa’s long-standing gap in access to formal financial services. 

With businesses and even financial institutions beginning to integrate blockchain solutions, digital assets are no longer fringe, they are fast becoming the backbone of an alternative economic future.

The post Nigeria Tops Global Stablecoin Adoption, Ranks Second in Crypto Use appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.