A financial technology (fintech) company in Nigeria, One Finance Limited (OneFi) has been assigned a ‘BB’ rating with a stable outlook from Global Credit Rating Company.
OneFi is the company behind Paylater, Nigeria’s digital financial services platform that specializes in consumer lending.
Global Credit Rating Company is one of Africa’s leading ratings agency, accounting for the majority of ratings accorded on the African continent.
According to the Chief Executive Officer of OneFi, Chijioke Dozie, the company is Africa’s first fintech company to secure such a rating.
He assured of increasing transparency around his company’s credit and lending services.
While he described the entire process of securing the rating as rigorous, but hugely beneficial for the company, he said it has allowed it scrutinize its finance and business models, as well as provide full transparency not only to our stakeholders, but to Paylater customers across Nigeria.
“In arriving at this rating of ‘BB’ with a Stable outlook, Global Credit Rating Company’s analysis found that OneFi is well capitalized vis-a-vis its current risk level, and also highlighted the fact that the company currently has a low liquidity risk.
“We are a young company, and the very first African fintech platform to be awarded with a credit score, and whilst we are pleased with our ‘BB’ rating and stable outlook, we are now focused on expanding our product offering, improving our asset quality, driving up customer loan applications and looking at ways in which we can bring our innovative approach to finance management to additional markets,” he said.
As part of its ongoing commitment to transparency, the lending platform has since September provided each Paylater loan applicant with a free credit bureau report, irrespective of decision, with 100% reporting of positive and negative data.
“To date, the company has shared over 60,000 reports with customers,” he said.