African SMB lender Lidya will expand to Eastern Europe, the Nigerian company announced, targeting $1.1 billion in European loans.
The SMB lender will bring its model of fast loan disbursement first to Poland and the Czech Republic.
It has had great success in Nigeria, having made almost 10,000 loans since launching less than four years ago.
In Africa — particularly Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa — mobile payments and banking is extremely well-developed, and in many ways more sophisticated than in the West. Reports estimate that 45% of the GDP of Kenya passes through mobile payments.
