Adedeji Olowe

When I talk to small business owners in Nigeria and across Africa, I keep coming back to the same thought: this is one of the best times in history to start something useful, because tools that once felt out of reach are now affordable and effective. I said something similar when I spoke at FATE Foundation, a non-profit started by Fola Adeola in the early 2000s to support entrepreneurs, and I meant it. I have seen what determined founders can achieve with limited resources, and I have also seen how technology has lowered the cost and effort needed to get results. For small and medium-sized businesses, AI is one of the clearest opportunities to compete, but only if you are willing to pick up the tools and use them with discipline.

That discipline comes from building small habits. It starts with learning the basics of one or two AI platforms instead of trying to master everything at once. From there, the focus should be on applying AI to repetitive or time-consuming work where you can measure the benefit. If you can see the hours saved or the increase in leads, you know you are moving in the right direction. Once the habit is set, it becomes easier to expand the use of AI across other parts of your business without creating confusion or wasted effort.

When I share this with founders, I always stress that it is not a magic solution but a practical approach that turns effort into results you can track. Below, I will walk through the simple ways I encourage business owners to use AI and affordable software to raise their game. Everything comes from real conversations with entrepreneurs and from the experiments I run with teams to test what works. The goal is to offer a roadmap any SME can follow to grow with the resources they already have.

Your web presence is non-negotiable and it does not need to be fancy

What did you do the last time you heard about a business you wanted to work with? You probably Googled them. That’s what people do with you too. When someone hears about your business, their first move is almost always an online search. If nothing comes up, many assume your business does not exist. I have met plenty of business owners who think a website is complicated, expensive, or only for big companies. That mindset holds them back because a simple website that explains who you are, what you do, and how to reach you is the minimum requirement, and setting one up today is easier and cheaper than most realise.

A basic WordPress installation or a simple Webflow site is enough to start. Buy a domain name, pay for hosting, pick a clean template, and within a few hours you can have a professional-looking page live. Hosting can cost as little as $5 a month on platforms like Bluehost, Hostinger, or Namecheap, which works out to about $60 a year. For what you gain in credibility and customer trust, that cost is small. Treat the site like a digital business card that people can always rely on when they need to verify you or learn more about your services.

The mistake I see often is businesses delaying because they cannot afford a glossy, custom-built site. That delay costs them opportunities. Customers rarely care about flashy animations or advanced features. What matters is that your site is clear, functional, and easy to use. Having your contact details visible, your product or service explained in plain language, and a simple way to reach you can be the difference between winning a new customer and being forgotten.

If you are serious about growth, this is one of the simplest first steps. A clean, functional site signals that you are ready for business. It is an investment that pays for itself every time a potential customer looks you up and finds what they need.

Make your content pull customers to you, and let AI do the boring heavy lifting

Getting a website up is only the first step. What keeps it alive and valuable is the content that goes on it. This is where most business owners slow down or give up, because creating content, case studies, and FAQs is extremely difficult and mind numbing. It is one thing to build a site, but it is another thing entirely to keep it stocked with the type of material that brings people back or convinces them to reach out.

This is exactly where AI can become a practical tool. The first and most obvious use is in writing. Tools like Jasper for marketing copy, Copy.ai for quick drafts, and Writesonic for product descriptions can help you create service pages, blog posts, and sales material that are clear, structured, and search-friendly. To get the best out of them, you still need to provide context. A few notes on your tone, concrete facts about your business, and maybe a short customer story can give the tool enough material to produce something close to your voice. Once you have a draft, your job is to edit it, strip out anything unnecessary, and make sure it reflects your reality. That way, you get content that is ready faster without losing the authenticity of your brand.

The second way AI helps is by handling the supporting pieces that are usually ignored because of time. Think about the FAQs your customers keep asking you on WhatsApp, or the onboarding emails you wish you had but never wrote. You can use AI to generate drafts of these in minutes, giving you a starting point instead of a blank page. It also makes producing regular blog posts easier, especially if you focus on answering common customer questions. Each piece of content you add builds your visibility and positions you as someone who understands your customers’ needs.

Once the heavy lifting is done by AI, your responsibility shifts to deciding which pages or materials will make the biggest difference. A polished “About Us” page, a clear set of FAQs, or one or two detailed case studies can go a long way in convincing potential buyers. The point is to give enough information in the right places so customers can make a decision quickly without sending endless emails back and forth.

When you take this approach, content becomes an asset. Instead of worrying about how to constantly create from scratch, you now have a reliable way to generate material, refine it, and publish it with confidence that it will actually move people closer to doing business with you.

Make your images and videos work for you without hiring a studio

For a long time, photography and video were stumbling blocks for small businesses. Getting professional visuals meant booking a photographer, paying for models, and renting a studio, which added up quickly. Many brands either settled for low-quality images or drained resources trying to keep up. Now, AI tools give you a different path. You can generate or edit visuals that match your brand without needing a full creative team or expensive equipment. This makes it possible for even the smallest businesses to have websites and social channels that feel polished and intentional.

Tools like Google’s image model, commonly nicknamed Nano Banana, make this process straightforward. With them, you can create product shots in a variety of settings, show how an item might look in someone’s hand, or design a clean hero image that tells your story at a glance. You can also repurpose existing photos by editing the background, adjusting colors, or adding missing details so that everything looks consistent. If you are unsure how to guide these tools, there are plenty of free resources with prompt libraries and lessons from places like Google and ChatGPT that can help you get started.

Short videos are another area where AI helps. Instead of needing a production crew, you can create explainer clips, demo reels, or simple customer walkthroughs that show your product in action. The tools will not replace genuine storytelling, but they give you a cost-effective way to make content that keeps your brand present across platforms. When used well, these assets make your marketing stronger without overwhelming your budget or your team.

At the same time, it is important to use visuals responsibly. If you are selling a product, the image or video should be an honest representation of what the buyer will actually receive. Customers can spot exaggeration, and misleading visuals usually create more problems than they solve. The real goal is to use these tools to highlight the best parts of what you already offer, so the right people are drawn in and feel confident about choosing you.

Keep customers with good support and simple CRM tools

Getting a customer is only the start; keeping them is where real growth comes from. The mistake many small businesses make is treating customer support as an afterthought. They rely on memory, scattered notes, or informal follow-ups, which usually leads to missed messages, slow responses, and customers quietly moving on to someone more reliable. A simple structure, even with basic tools, changes that outcome completely.

There are plenty of free or very affordable platforms that can make customer support feel intentional without overwhelming you. Freshdesk, for example, has a free plan that comes with ticketing, a basic knowledge base, and simple reporting. For most SMEs, that is more than enough to get started. It allows you to track conversations in one place instead of jumping between emails, calls, and social media DMs. If you add a few well-written response templates and a small FAQ section on your site, customers can get answers quickly, and your team spends less time repeating the same explanations over and over. It is a small effort upfront that pays off in customer trust.

Live chat is another area where businesses often overestimate what is needed. Many assume they have to pay for enterprise software to add a chat feature, but that is not the case. Tools like tawk.to give you a free chat widget that you can install on your site in minutes. It works well for capturing leads and answering questions in real time, and it also keeps a history of conversations so you can follow up properly. A visitor who gets an immediate answer to a concern is far more likely to convert into a paying customer than someone who sends an email and waits days for a reply.

The real advantage of adopting these tools is consistency. When customers know they will be heard and helped, they are more willing to stay with your business and recommend it to others. Good support does not require a big team or a huge budget, it requires a clear process, the right lightweight tools, and a commitment to respond quickly and honestly.

Use accounting tools to understand your numbers

When you start to pursue bigger opportunities, whether with large clients, investors, or lenders, the first area that gets examined is your financial records. No matter how strong your product or service is, a messy set of books makes it difficult for anyone to take you seriously. Larger buyers want to know they are dealing with someone who has structure, and investors want to see that money is being managed responsibly. If you cannot produce clear invoices, expense records, and basic financial statements, you immediately weaken your chances of moving forward with them.

The good news is that you don’t need to wait until your business is established or hire a full-time accountant before putting some structure around your numbers. There are free or very affordable accounting tools built specifically for small businesses that help you stay organised. Zoho Books, for instance, has a forever free plan that allows you to send invoices, track expenses, reconcile bank transactions, and generate standard reports like profit and loss. These are the same essentials a bank or investor will ask for when reviewing your business, and having them ready at the click of a button puts you in a stronger position. 

Starting with a system like this from day one means you build the habit early, and you avoid the scramble of trying to clean up records later when an opportunity comes knocking. Even a simple set of financial records shows partners, lenders, and clients that you run your operations in a disciplined way. It communicates that you take the business seriously and that you can be trusted to deliver. Over time, that credibility opens doors that would otherwise remain closed, because opportunities often flow to businesses that appear prepared.

Document your processes and treat them like assets

A business that relies on memory quickly hits a ceiling. If every step sits in your head, growth depends on how much you can handle, which is rarely sustainable. The way to scale beyond a one-person operation is to write things down and create processes others can follow. Focus on documenting the steps that matter most: onboarding checklists for new staff, guidelines for handling customer complaints, instructions on packaging and shipping, and how to run a basic quality check. 

Writing standard operating procedures can feel like a drag when you are busy, but the payoff is real. Instead of starting from scratch, use AI tools to create first drafts. Feed in the details of how you currently work, get a structured outline, and refine it into a practical step-by-step document. Once captured, that process becomes an asset. It saves time with every new hire and preserves quality so customers get the same experience no matter who handles the work.

Documentation also applies to contracts and paperwork. LLMs can help you review contracts to highlight gaps or unclear clauses. When it is time to sign, free digital signature tools make the process simple. For editing or adjusting PDFs without paying for expensive software, free platforms like PDF24 let you merge, split, or update documents at no cost.

It is worth investing in a searchable knowledge base. This can be as simple as a shared Google Drive folder. What matters is that your team has one reliable source of truth. When new hires can quickly find the right answer to a policy or process question, they make fewer mistakes and waste less time asking for clarification. Over time, this reduces errors, improves customer satisfaction, and keeps the business running smoothly as the team grows.

Don’t underestimate presentation polish

The way you package your message matters more than most people admit. Good presentation signals that you take the person on the other end seriously. When you walk into a meeting with a buyer, investor, or partner, they are paying attention to both what you are saying and how it is delivered. A pitch deck does not have to look like it came from a global consulting firm, but it should be easy to read, well structured, and consistent with your brand identity.

Today, there are tools that make it almost effortless to add that polish. Canva, for example, has templates that take care of layout, typography, and branding. Free options like Google Slides, Gamma, and Pitch also help you create slides that feel professional without hiring a designer. It costs very little, but the impact on how you are perceived is significant. A clear, well-organized deck helps people follow your ideas, and it removes distractions that come from poor formatting or cluttered slides.

Polish extends beyond slides too. Simple details like using your brand fonts consistently, ensuring charts are readable, and avoiding walls of text go a long way in helping the other person engage with your pitch. The goal is not to oversell but to align the way your material looks with the seriousness of your ambition.

When the substance of your pitch is strong and the presentation matches that level, you give yourself the best chance of being remembered and taken seriously. Buyers and partners often have a stack of meetings in a day, and the ones who present clearly and respectfully stand out. Think of presentation polish as part of the investment you make in credibility because it works alongside your product, numbers, and story to move things forward.

Why I care, and what I tell every founder I meet

Speaking at FATE Foundation was an honour because organisations like that have been doing the heavy lifting for entrepreneurs long before it became fashionable to talk about startups. For more than two decades, they have been providing the training, mentorship, and community that turn ideas into operational businesses. That work matters deeply to me because it aligns with what I try to do every day at Lendsqr and in the mentoring I give to founders and teams.

At the event, I met founders who were sharp, creative, and determined, but who often lacked the resources that would allow them to fully realise their potential. This is where technology and process make a difference. With the right tools and some structure in place, a small business can start to look and behave like a much larger one. When you combine those practices with even modest capital, the odds of surviving the early years and eventually growing into something meaningful increase significantly. It is not about shortcuts but about making thoughtful choices that give you a real foundation to build on.I care about this because I believe in the possibility of Nigerian and African businesses to not only serve local markets but to expand across borders and compete on a larger stage. And my role, as I see it, is to keep finding ways to make the practical side easier for founders. Sometimes that is through Lendsqr, by giving lenders the infrastructure to operate and grow. Other times it is through direct mentorship, sharing insights here and on Linkedin, or simply pointing people to tools they can adopt quickly. These may feel like small interventions, but over time they add up to stronger businesses and a healthier ecosystem.

Africa is a 1.4billion-person market, 20x the size of the UK and 4x the size of the US. You would be a stupid founder to sit in your corner of Africa and not explore.

So, everybody wants to go pan-African until reality smacks them. Market expansion often sounds sexy on paper. It is the kind of announcement that founders like to make with chest-thumping pride, almost the same way politicians love to declare “we are diversifying the economy.” It feels good to say, signals growth and it gets investors nodding and clapping. You can bet the press picks it up, and suddenly you are in the headlines as the next big continental play.

The moment a startup in Lagos, Nairobi, or Cape Town grows to a certain size, the itch begins. There’s this unspoken belief that to be truly successful, you must spread your wings beyond your home country. Suddenly, we all want to plant flags across the continent, to prove we are bigger than just one market.

And to be fair, some companies have actually managed to make it work. Flutterwave is everywhere and has built a name that is recognized across multiple African countries. Paystack has pulled it off as well and has done it with enough discipline that people now point to them as a benchmark. My own company, Lendsqr, has spread beyond Nigeria, working with customers in several countries. Even Chowdeck, which is much newer in the scene, just marched into Ghana and is already crushing numbers like they have been there for years. These stories are inspiring and keep the dream alive for a lot of founders who are planning their own moves.

The truth, however, is that these few success stories sit on top of a mountain of attempts that didn’t end the same way. The continent is littered with stories that don’t sound as rosy. I’ve personally watched Nigerian startups head into other countries with all the confidence in the world, only to retreat quietly when reality hit them. Some leave with public statements about “restructuring strategy” or “shifting focus,” but many just fade out and go silent, nursing their wounds in private. I’ve also seen the reverse. Companies from other African countries have tried to break into Nigeria, hoping to tap into the massive market, and they’ve ended up crashing just as badly.

One example that comes to mind is the Sendy, the Kenyan logistics company that tried their luck in Nigeria. They came in with energy and ambition, but it didn’t last. It was over before most people even noticed they had arrived. Wave, which is doing incredibly well in francophone Africa, hasn’t dared enter Nigeria, and maybe that decision is more out of wisdom than fear. Nigeria is not for children. It eats up outsiders who underestimate it, just as easily as other countries chew up Nigerian startups that come in thinking size and ambition are enough.

So when I talk about the myth of African expansion, this is what I mean. On the surface, it looks like the natural next step in a startup’s growth story. It feels like something you are supposed to do once you are stable at home. But when you look at the outcomes of many who have gone before you, what you find is that expanding across Africa is less of a walk in the park than they let on.

And before anyone runs off with the wrong idea. This is not a dig at any individual founder or business. It is my own reflection from years of watching, living, and sometimes participating in these moves. It is based on the scars I have seen others carry and the ones I have earned myself.

Why do we even want to expand in the first place?

The motivation is never the same for every company, and each founder has their own story to tell about why they chose to leave the comfort of their home market. For me, speaking from my Lendsqr journey, the decision was almost hardwired from the beginning. We never set out to build something that was only relevant to Nigeria. The company’s DNA was global from the very start. Lending has never been a uniquely Nigerian issue, it’s always been a challenge faced in every economy where people need access to credit to move forward. Whether it’s a street vendor in Lagos, an Uber driver in Dubai, or a small migrant-owned business in Toronto, the need for fair, reliable, and efficient access to credit is the same. That understanding shaped how we built Lendsqr and made expansion feel like a natural progression rather than an afterthought.

As things stand today, we already serve customers in countries far beyond Nigeria. We have businesses using Lendsqr in Canada, the United States, Rwanda, Zambia, Malawi, and we are in meaningful conversations with potential clients in several other places as well. That was always the plan. It was never about simply conquering Lagos or focusing on a handful of Nigerian states. The mission was always to solve lending problems wherever they existed, and the more we engaged with different markets, the clearer it became that our solution could travel.

Another major driver is the need to spread risk. Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a smart move, and in a market like Nigeria, it is downright dangerous. If your entire livelihood as a business is tied to the whims of one regulator or one government agency, you are gambling with your future. I have seen this play out in real time. The FCCPC made one sweeping decision recently that threw the entire lending ecosystem in Nigeria into confusion. If Nigeria was our only market, that single move could have ended us. Unfortunately, that’s the reality of building in volatile environments. By expanding to multiple countries, we reduced that risk. It meant that if one market decided to play rough, the entire company would not go under.

There is also the financial angle, which cannot be ignored. Revenue from multiple streams is healthier than relying on a single source, and international expansion makes that possible. If there are markets willing to pay for a product you have already built and tested, it only makes sense to step into them. For us, it was about increasing top-line numbers and also about strengthening the platform itself. Working with a wide variety of customers across different geographies exposes you to different lending cultures, regulatory requirements, and customer expectations. Every time we enter a new market, the product gets better. The feedback loop becomes richer, the technology more resilient, and the overall offering sharper because it has to meet higher levels of diversity.

So when I think about why we wanted to expand, it was never a vanity project or a way to entice investors. Rather, it was rooted in the nature of the problem we were solving, the need to protect the business from unnecessary risks, the opportunity to make more money, and the understanding that the more we stretched ourselves across borders, the stronger Lendsqr would become.

Market expansion is hellishly hard

The biggest reality check for any expansion dream is often regulation. For Lendsqr, we’ve been lucky because we operate strictly as software. We don’t move money ourselves, which means we are not directly under the kind of licensing and compliance requirements that payments companies face. That has spared us many sleepless nights. But for any company whose business model involves actually handling money, the reality is brutal. You will find yourself sitting in front of regulators who can stall you for months, sometimes even years, before you get the green light. The rules are not always clear, and just when you think you’ve ticked every box, another requirement appears. It is never a one-time battle either, be prepared for a constant tug-of-war that drains time, energy, and cash.

From my days in banking with UBA, Access, and Atlas Mara, I saw how different the game is when you are a large institution with the muscle to play. These banks had entire departments dedicated to market entry. The teams were filled with people who spent their entire careers learning how to navigate regulators across different countries. They knew the contacts to call, the processes to follow, and even the cultural nuances that mattered when walking into a government office. That kind of machinery is what gave them an edge. Startups, on the other hand, rarely have that. They move into new markets armed with gist, hearsay and a lot of optimism. And optimism is not a strategy when regulators are standing in your way.

The second wall you crash into is the cost. Expanding into another country is not just expensive; it can bleed you dry if you don’t have the right financial foundation. Banks, again, can afford to raise capital specifically for expansion. They walk into new markets with war chests and stay long enough to weather the storm until their operations stabilize. Startups don’t have that luxury. Many of them try to squeeze international expansion out of funds that were barely enough for their home market. What happens is that the burn rate goes up, revenue lags behind, and very quickly the whole project becomes unsustainable. I have seen promising companies sink this way because they underestimated how much money it would take to break into another market.

And then comes the most unpredictable challenge of all: people. Regulations and money can be calculated, at least to some degree, but people are the wildcards that make or break everything. The hires you make in a new country determine whether your business will take root or wither. Too often, founders underestimate this. They go into a new market, bring in locals, and then realize the work culture and sense of urgency are completely different. Nigerians, for instance, are known for a kind of productive madness (a fancy way of saying we dey craze). We thrive under pressure, we improvise when the ground shifts, and we move with speed even when the environment is chaotic. That edge is what helps us survive. But when you enter a market where the pace is slower, or people prefer caution and safety, and you build your team around that, the disconnect becomes dangerous. You may find that no matter how hard you push, things move at a crawl, and eventually, you drown in that sluggishness.

I witnessed this dynamic back in my UBA days. We were fortunate in countries like Ghana, Cameroon, and Uganda, where we found incredible people to build with. These were competent hires that were relentless, sharp, and willing to fight for results. They would have excelled anywhere in the world, and UBA was lucky to have them. That kind of talent is rare, though. Most startups expanding across borders do not always strike gold when hiring, and without that quality of people on the ground, even the best product and the best intentions collapse under the weight of local realities.

Why banks sometimes win where startups fail

Banks, despite all their layers of bureaucracy and the sluggish pace they’re often accused of, have one advantage that tilts the game in their favor. They don’t always walk into a new country blind or start laying bricks from the ground up. More often than not, they take the shortcut of buying into an existing business that’s already running in that market. It could be a small local bank or a mid-tier institution, but the point is that they inherit something that is already moving. Even if the integration process is messy, full of cultural clashes, and expensive in ways that only bankers can stomach, there is already money flowing in. That immediate revenue, no matter how modest, acts like a shock absorber. It cushions the blows that come with learning a new market and keeps the business afloat long enough for them to figure out their rhythm.

Startups almost never have this kind of luxury. The reality is that we are too strapped for cash to go around acquiring companies, so the default mode is to build from zero and hope it sticks. A handful of acquisitions do happen in the startup world, but those are exceptions and not the rule. Without that initial cushion of ready-made revenue, every mistake cuts deeper and every delay is costlier. Bloodbath is exactly what happens when the burn rate collides with the slow grind of market entry. For startups, survival often comes down to how long you can keep going without oxygen, and in new markets, that is rarely long enough.

What it really takes to succeed across Africa

If anyone is serious about expanding across the continent, here’s what I’ve learned over the years, both from my banking days and now at Lendsqr.

The first thing is to know the market inside out. And I don’t mean a few reports or the stories you hear at conferences. I’m talking about the messy, often uncomfortable details that don’t make it into slide decks. You need to understand how politics shapes business in that country, what regulators actually like to deal with, the unwritten rules that determine who gets ahead, and the local players who quietly control the ecosystem. These are things you only uncover if you’re willing to dig, listen, and sometimes learn the hard way. Expansion is not a place for too much guesswork or improvisation.

Second, you need to bring in people who live and breathe regulation. If your business touches money in any way, you cannot afford to wing it. Regulators have no sympathy for startup ambition, and they will not bend the rules because you have a great pitch deck or you’re coming to solve a “problem”. This means hiring the right experts, even when they don’t come cheap. The truth is that these are the people who can keep your business alive when a new law drops or when the regulator decides to make an example of someone. Paying for that knowledge upfront is a lot better than paying in lost revenue and endless delays later.

Third, you have to be ruthless about the people you hire. Expansion is not the time to surround yourself with people who just like the idea of working with the next “big startup”. You need people who are hungry, who can operate in chaos, and who have the stamina to build something from scratch without constant handholding. These are the kinds of hires who will stay focused when things get ugly and who won’t buckle under the pressure of setbacks. Without them, the whole thing collapses before it even takes root.

Finally, you need to send in people who already understand your culture at the core. Back in banking, the playbook was clear: the first person deployed into a new country was almost always Nigerian. The reason was simple. They carried the DNA of the parent company. They understood how decisions were made at headquarters, they could replicate that culture in a new environment, and they acted as a bridge between home and the new market. If you parachute in someone who has no sense of your company’s way of working, no matter how competent they look on paper, you’ll struggle to translate your mission into reality. Culture is fragile, and expansion has a way of breaking it if you don’t guard it carefully.

So, is African expansion really a myth?

Looking at the stories around us, the evidence leans heavily in that direction. For every Flutterwave, Paystack, or Cellulant that manages to pull off multi-country expansion and make it look effortless, there are dozens of startups that attempted the same thing and quietly disappeared after burning money and energy. The failures don’t get panel discussions or press releases, but if you’ve been in the ecosystem long enough, you’ve seen them. Some shut down entire operations, others limp back to their home markets, and a few keep hanging on in silence, never quite breaking through.

The dream of spreading across Africa carries a certain romantic appeal. It feels like destiny to be the company that unites fragmented markets under one product, to prove that borders don’t matter, and to boast about operations in half a dozen countries. But the ground you’re walking on is unpredictable and often hostile. It takes deep capital, endless resilience, and a team that can withstand constant turmoil. Without those, expansion is less of a growth story and more of a slow-motion collapse.It can be done, but the bar is much higher than founders like to admit. The continent doesn’t reward undercapitalized businesses that expand just because. If you’re not ready to spend heavily on regulation, local talent, infrastructure, and the inevitable mistakes that come with learning new markets, you’ll be finished before you even make it to stability. The idea that “Africa is one big market” sounds nice in pitch decks, but in practice it’s an illusion. Every border comes with its own politics, rules, and players, and pretending otherwise is the fastest way to ruin.

I have no problem with consumer protection. In fact, it’s something I’ve been waiting to see for years in Nigeria and across other African countries. For the longest time, the lending industry here has been like the Wild West, with very little in the way of rules or safeguards for ordinary people. Kenya was one of the first to put clear regulations in place for digital lending, introducing the Digital Credit Providers Regulations in 2022, which set standards for licensing, fees, and borrower rights. So when Nigeria’s FCCPC rolled out its new law on lending practices, I genuinely felt some relief. It finally looked like someone was stepping in to bring order to the chaos and give borrowers the confidence that they weren’t completely on their own. And if you know anything about how Nigeria works, you’ll understand why this feels like such a big deal. We’re used to institutions looking the other way when it comes to the struggles of everyday people, so seeing a regulator actively plant itself in the corner of borrowers deserves some credit. The FCCPC earned its applause on that one.

But once the excitement settled, I had to pause and really think about what this all means in practice. I’ve spent enough time in this space to know that even the best-intentioned laws can take on a life of their own. Protecting borrowers makes sense, and there’s no debate about whether it is necessary, but the way people actually use those protections is where things start to get murky. What I’ve started to notice is a creeping attitude among some borrowers that these rules are now a shield to hide behind, almost like a get-out-of-jail-free card. Instead of seeing consumer protection as a safety net against abuse, some are treating it as a licence to misbehave. And to be clear, I’m not speculating here, I’ve seen it happening already.

This is the part that worries me, because once people realise that the system tilts heavily in their favour, the temptation to game it becomes too strong. Borrowers start defaulting with a straight face, brushing off their obligations as if the law has given them cover. They conveniently forget that every unpaid loan doesn’t just hurt a lender; it also makes credit harder and more expensive for everyone else who might genuinely need it. That’s the danger of a one-sided protection model. It begins with noble intentions, but if left unchecked, it ends with a broken system that serves no one well.

Africa is catching up on consumer protection finally

Nigeria is not the only country waking up to this conversation. Across the continent, regulators are starting to take a harder look at how lending works and what protections borrowers deserve. In Kenya, for example, the Central Bank of Kenya amended its regulations in 2021 to bring digital lenders under direct supervision, requiring them to disclose all fees upfront and banning the practice of debt shaming. South Africa has had its National Credit Act since 2005, which created the National Credit Regulator and set rules around affordability checks, fair interest rates, and even the right for borrowers to challenge unfair credit agreements. Ghana recently passed the Borrowers and Lenders Act in 2020, which established a legal framework for credit agreements and gave the Bank of Ghana authority to license and monitor lenders. Even in Tanzania and Uganda, where digital credit is newer, you now see requirements for lenders to register with central banks and follow rules on interest disclosures. For a region that has historically left borrowers at the mercy of whoever had the cash, this growing wave of credit-specific protections is a real shift, and it is encouraging to see it spreading.

Where the challenge begins, however, is in how these protections are interpreted once they leave the pages of regulation and meet real people on the ground. On paper, the goal is simple: defend borrowers from exploitation. Regulators are standing up and saying, “You will not be cheated, harassed, or bullied when you borrow money.” That is a noble and necessary message. But human behaviour is never that straightforward. Once borrowers realise that there is now a safety net that can shield them, some start to test the limits. I have personally seen situations where people take loans with no serious plan to repay, and when the lender comes knocking, the borrower boldly leans on the regulator’s rules as cover. Loan obligations suddenly become optional, something to get around if possible, since the law is assumed to be firmly on their side.

This is where I start to get uneasy, because protections that were designed to restore fairness can easily turn into weapons for irresponsibility. When borrowers begin to act like regulators are there to punish lenders on their behalf, the balance of the system gets lost. The slope is gradual but very real: a few defaults ignored here, some abuse of the rules there, and before long, borrowing culture itself becomes toxic. If this trend continues, it will not just be lenders who suffer. The very people these laws are meant to protect will find that credit dries up, because no one is willing to take the risk anymore.

Borrowers aren’t always the saints in this story

The uncomfortable truth is that many of the ugly practices we see in lending did not just appear out of thin air. When a lender blasts someone’s contact list or sends threatening messages to their relatives, as crude and damaging as those actions are, they usually stem from a borrower who has refused to repay what they owe. I am not excusing those tactics in any way, because they harm the industry, destroy trust, and ultimately push regulators to come down harder on everyone. But if we are going to have a serious conversation about consumer protection, we cannot skip over the fact that a huge number of these conflicts begin with a loan that was never repaid.

Yes, there are absolutely lenders who operate in bad faith. Some deliberately sneak in hidden fees, inflate interest rates, or design repayment schedules that they know will trip up the borrower. Those businesses are exploitative, and they deserve the scrutiny regulators throw at them. But focusing only on bad lenders tells only half the story. There is another reality, one that regulators rarely talk about: borrowers who collect loans with no genuine plan to pay back. Over the years and even more recently than you’d think, i’ve come across borrowers who take out multiple loans from different digital platforms in the same week, juggling them as if it were free cash. Some default the moment the funds hit their account, knowing that recovery is messy and regulators will step in if the lender pushes too hard. These are not isolated cases, they are patterns that chips away at the very foundation of credit.

If consumer protection is to be credible, it cannot just draw lines around lenders while leaving borrowers free of responsibility. A system where only one side is accountable is already broken. Borrowers need to understand that protections are meant to shield them from abuse, not from responsibility. If you take out a loan in good faith but run into genuine hardship, then yes, you deserve protection, mediation, and even restructuring options. But if you deliberately game the system, hiding behind regulations while treating repayment as optional, you poison the pool for everyone else. What eventually happens is that lenders start pulling back, tightening requirements, or leaving the market entirely, and the very people who lose out are the honest borrowers who suddenly have fewer or no options left.

This is why I believe consumer protection has to be framed as a two-way street. Borrowers cannot keep expecting regulators to fight their battles while ignoring their own obligations. If regulators really want to build a healthy credit culture, they need to make it clear that protection is earned through good faith. Those who exploit the system should face consequences, just as much as predatory lenders do. Otherwise, we are left with a system that rewards irresponsibility and punishes those who are actually trying to do the right thing.

Why digital lenders exist in the first place

The rise of digital lenders in Africa did not come out of nowhere. It was born out of a frustrating reality that traditional banks created and then ignored. Walk into a commercial bank in Senegal and try asking for a personal loan, and you’ll quickly discover that the system was never built with ordinary people in mind. First, you face a mountain of paperwork. Then, there’s the demand for collateral that you don’t have. After that comes the long back and forth that can drag on for weeks, with no guarantee that you’ll ever get the money. And most times, after all that trouble, the final answer is still no.

This story repeats itself across the continent. In Kenya, if you need cash urgently on a Saturday evening to rush someone to the hospital, you already know the bank will not even pick up your call. In Zambia, if a medical emergency strikes on a Friday night, you’re fucked. In Senegal, when school fees are due at the end of the month, banks are not lining up to help parents meet that deadline. For small businesses, it is even worse. An SME founder trying to raise quick capital to keep operations afloat in Nigeria is simply on their own.

The only people answering in those moments were digital lenders. They built a system that actually shows up when people need money the most, whether it’s for survival, school, or business. And that is why borrowers turned to them in their millions. Using mobile phones and tech, they made credit accessible to people who had never had the chance before. SMEs could buy inventory without waiting for a loan committee. Parents could pay fees at the very last moment. Families dealing with health emergencies could find help, even at night.

And this is why the conversation around consumer protection matters so much. When regulations lean too heavily toward shielding borrowers without balancing accountability, digital lenders start asking themselves whether the risk is even worth it. Running a lending business is not charity, and when repayment becomes uncertain while rules make recovery nearly impossible, many lenders eventually leave. Regulators may celebrate wins on paper, but the people who end up stranded are the same borrowers they wanted to protect. The parent looking for school fees will have no options. The small business needing working capital will be left to plead with banks that never wanted them in the first place. That is the irony: in trying to protect borrowers, we risk cutting them off from the only credit they have ever had access to. 

If I were in charge

The harsh truth we must all come to terms with is how consumer protection should never be one-sided. It cannot work if it’s built on the assumption that lenders are always the predators and borrowers are always the prey. The reality is much more complicated. Borrowers absolutely need safeguards against lenders who charge outrageous fees, hide terms, or harass people during collections.

Those practices wear down trust and make credit dangerous instead of useful. But protection also comes with responsibility. If someone takes a loan, there has to be a clear understanding that repayment is not optional. You can put all the protective barriers in place for fairness, yet the foundation of credit still rests on the borrower keeping their word and paying back what they owe.

I would even go as far as saying regulators should create a mechanism for lenders to flag habitual defaulters. If lenders can be blacklisted for bad practices, why can’t serial defaulters face the same thing? Accountability should cut both ways. Otherwise, we are just encouraging a culture of irresponsibility that eventually destroys the credit system.

Now, don’t get me wrong. If I were running the FCCPC in Nigeria, or the equivalent bodies in Kenya, Ghana, or South Africa, I’d still enforce every single protection against abuse. Nobody deserves to be bullied, humiliated, or trapped in unfair loan terms. But alongside that, I’d add a firm and practical layer of borrower accountability. That means making sure consumer protection cannot be twisted into a free pass for irresponsibility. If lenders are expected to meet clear rules and standards, borrowers should too.

Because at the end of the day, the role of a regulator is to keep the system fair for both borrowers and lenders, not to tilt everything in favor of one side. Lenders will only continue to lend when there is confidence that what goes out will come back. And that requires telling borrowers, in no uncertain terms, that protection is available, but it comes with responsibility. If you take a loan, you must be ready to pay back.