Lidya CEO, CTO Exit While Customers Struggle to Retrieve Funds
Lidya, an African fintech established in 2016 by Jumia veterans Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, originally aimed to provide crucial credit access to small businesses. However, the company is now facing severe challenges, with small businesses relying on its debit mandate platform, Lidya Collect, unable to access their deposited funds for nearly a year. This ongoing issue casts a significant shadow on the fintech’s operations and its credibility within the vibrant Nigerian market.
Lidya’s Evolving Strategy Amidst Financial Turmoil
Lidya, founded by Tunde Kehinde, former co-founder of Jumia Nigeria, and Ercin Eksin, former CEO of Jumia Nigeria and COO of Jumia Africa, initially focused on empowering small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with vital credit. In a strategic move, the company expanded its reach into Eastern Europe in 2020, venturing into Poland and the Czech Republic. Despite raising a substantial $8.3 million in a Series B funding round, Lidya opted to withdraw from these European markets just three years later, in 2023. At the time of this withdrawal, the company publicly stated its intention to re-center its efforts on the Nigerian market, prioritizing the development of its new solution, Lidya Collect. This innovative platform was designed as an automated loan collection tool, enabling SMEs to recover funds directly from customers’ bank accounts via standing instructions, with the collected money intended for deposit into the businesses’ Lidya wallets. The current predicament, where these funds are inaccessible to businesses, directly impacts the viability of this core service and raises serious questions about the platform’s reliability and the fintech’s operational integrity.
The inability of small businesses to retrieve funds from their Lidya Collect wallets represents a critical crisis for the fintech. With nearly a year passing without access to their operational capital, affected SMEs are facing immense financial strain and operational paralysis. This situation not only undermines the trust placed in digital financial platforms in Africa but also poses a significant challenge to Lidya’s standing in the dynamic yet scrutinizing African tech ecosystem. The future implications for businesses depending on Lidya’s services remain uncertain as the community awaits a resolution to this pressing issue.
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