The London Stock Exchange has named Social Lender, a fintech firm that bridges the gap of immediate fund access for people with limited access to formal credit and a globally recognised financial inclusion driver, alongside 97 other Nigerian companies in 2019 London Stock Exchange’s ‘‘Companies to Inspire Africa’’ report.
The report, which identifies 360 companies from 32 countries across the African continent with seven major sectors, represented featured companies including small entrepreneurial businesses through to well-established corporations.
David Schwimmer, Chief Executive Officer, LSEG, informed that most of the listed firms have undertaken cross-border expansion, both within the African continent and across the globe.
According to him, “London Stock Exchange Group’s ‘Companies to Inspire Africa’ report showcases inspirational and entrepreneurial businesses from across the African continent, representing a wide variety of industries and countries.
Schwimmer said: “Nigeria further built on its leading position established in 2017 report with strong representation from the industry and technology and telecoms sectors. These high-growth companies have the potential to transform the African economy and become tomorrow’s job creators.”
He also promised that LSEG, is committed to helping companies realize potentials and celebrate company success stories to motivate and encourage company starters.
Faith Adesemowo, CEO of Social Lender said, “We have been solving real problems for real people. We provide a way of accessing formal credit to users using their social reputation score. You can find several user testimonials on our blog and Facebook page. It is really touching the impact we have had on our users.”
She said that Social Lender uses its own proprietary algorithm to perform a social audit of the users on social media, online and other related platforms and gives a social reputation score to users.
She informed that the company is guaranteed by the users’ social profile and network allowing users to then borrow from banks and other financial institutions based on their social reputation.