Y-combinator-backed payment fintech startup Moni has recently rolled out a new range of business loans that enables small business owners in Africa to take advantage of the power of their communities to access the working capital they need to run and scale their businesses.

With 22% of businesses according to a PWC 2020 report, stating that obtaining finance for their business is the most pressing challenge they face, Moni seeks to solve this challenge by providing these businesses with the required capital/loans they need.

Speaking on the rollout of loans to businesses, CEO and co-founder of Moni Femi Iromini said, “Our community-powered business loans product is just one of the ways we are innovating around our unique context in Africa to make the most of what is already in place to deliver the financial services business owners need to create long-lasting wealth for themselves and their communities. We have ample evidence to show that this approach works and we are excited to be bringing more businesses on board to drive the economic development we all want to see on the continent.”

Founded in 2017, Moni is a community-powered, digital financial services platform that leverages the concept of community and social trust to deliver a range of products and services that makes it easier for Africans to build lasting businesses and wealth. The startup has built a risk platform that enables small business owners to take advantage of a good social reputation to access the working capital, loan savings, and insurance they need to scale their various business activities.

Moni’s lending system heavily draws on a four-point system. The first deals with the process of getting loans. For most lending startups, the process requires signing up, providing certain documents, getting verified, and then applying for a loan.

But on Moni, after signing up, users who need a loan join a cluster. Only after getting approved can they begin their loan applications. Essentially, clusters are groups of individuals who know each other and can vouch for one another, but the startup also takes it a step further by conducting additional checks.

The second part deals with recourse in the event of a default. If a business owner defaults on a loan from a bank, they often get their properties repossessed, but on Moni, the inability of one user to repay a loan affects every other person in the cluster. By getting every member committed to the outcome of an individual’s activity, Moni has been able to reduce default rates to 1%.

Finally, the startup has launched a savings feature, Moni Vault, which can be used for group savings. Essentially, the startup has leveraged the social capital of its users to provide financial services.

In 2022, Moni disbursed more than $22 million in loans to more than 11,000 SMEs, with a 99 percent repayment rate. The company is now building on the success of its community-powered model to deliver game-changing financial services to a wider range of African SMEs who have previously been underserved by the traditional financial system.

MONI platform is accessible from any feature or smartphone, and enables every citizen to identify themselves, and provides them with basic financial services. Its technology works on any carrier network anywhere in the world.

Since its inception, Moni has served over 10,000 businesses, even expanding beyond Nigeria into the Benin Republic. The startup is building the bridge between the now and the future of banking and financial services, with a mission to provide simple low-cost mobile personal banking tools for everyone, everywhere, and credit in real-time.