This is Follow the Money, our weekly series that unpacks the earnings, business, and scaling strategies of African fintechs, financial institutions, companies, and governments. A new edition drops every Monday.

Four of Nigeria’s biggest banks held ₦89.94 trillion ($65.63 billion) in customer deposits in 2025. Much of that money came from the millions of retail customers who save, transact, and bank with them every day. 

Yet nearly 90% of the loans the banks disbursed went to corporate borrowers. Oil and gas companies, manufacturers, and telecom operators accounted for most of the credit exposure. For every ₦1 these banks lent to retail customers, they lent about ₦10 to corporates.

This is according to an analysis of the annual reports of Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), United Bank for Africa (UBA), and First HoldCo Plc. 

The numbers reveal a banking system where millions of retail customers provide part of the deposits that fund lending, but large businesses receive most of the credit. For traditional lenders, large corporate loans are easier to monitor, cheaper to administer, and often more profitable than thousands of small consumer loans. 

But this imbalance has left a large section of consumers and small businesses underserved by formal lending and created the gap that digital lenders and fintechs are increasingly trying to close.

Only around 6% of adults borrow from formal sources, even though over 64% of adults are financially included, according to Enhancing Financial Inclusion and Advancement (EFInA), a financial sector organisation that tracks financial inclusion.  

“Limited access to credit can hinder economic growth and development by constraining investment in productive assets, stifling entrepreneurship, and impeding consumption,” EFInA said.

Follow the loans

At the end of 2025, GTCO held ₦12.55 trillion ($9.16 billion) in customer deposits. including ₦5.92 trillion ($4.32 billion) from retail customers. For every ₦1 GTCO lent to retail customers, it lent about ₦5 to corporates.

Access Holdings ended the year with ₦34.56 trillion ($25.22 billion) in customer deposits. For every ₦1 Access lent to retail borrowers, it lent more than ₦6 to businesses.

At UBA, loans to individuals amounted to roughly ₦588.89 billion ($429.70 million). For every ₦1 UBA lent to retail customers, it lent nearly ₦11 to corporates.

First Bank showed the widest gap. Loans to individuals stood at roughly ₦487.91 billion ($356.02 million). For every ₦1 First Bank lent to retail customers, it lent almost ₦18 to businesses.

Across the four banks, they lent roughly ₦10.3 to corporates for every ₦1 extended to retail customers. The trend extends beyond the biggest lenders.

According to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), consumer credit stood at ₦3.81 trillion ($2.78 billion) in January 2026. Personal loans accounted for 51.44% of the total, while retail loans stood at ₦1.85 trillion ($1.35 billion).

Despite Nigeria’s population of more than 230 million people and its position as Africa’s third-largest economy, the country’s consumer credit market remains relatively small. In Kenya, a country with about one-fourth of Nigeria’s population, consumer credit stood at 479.6 billion Kenyan shillings ($3.71 billion) as of December 2025.

Why banks prefer corporates

In a market where informal employment remains widespread, and incomes are often unpredictable, consumer lending can be expensive and difficult to manage. Banks must process thousands of small loans, monitor repayments across large customer bases, and absorb higher default risks.

Large corporate borrowers offer a different proposition.

They typically have audited financial statements, established banking relationships, predictable cash flows, and assets that banks can evaluate and use as collateral. A single multi-billion-naira facility to a major company can generate significant returns while requiring less administrative effort than thousands of consumer loans.

Yet corporate lending is not risk-free. Nigeria’s banking sector is currently dealing with a fresh rise in bad loans. In its January economic report, the CBN noted that the industry’s non-performing loan ratio rose to 8.03% in January 2026, above the prudential threshold of 5%.

Data from the International Monetary Fund shows that the ratio of non-performing loans to total gross loans increased from 4% in 2022 to 8% by the third quarter of 2025.

The rise suggests that even the corporate-heavy lending model that banks prefer is coming under pressure from inflation, high interest rates, foreign-exchange volatility, and broader economic challenges.

The gap that built fintech

Nigeria’s consumer lending market is estimated at $2.1 billion and continues to grow as rising living costs push more households and small businesses to seek short-term credit. For many of these borrowers, digital lenders have become the first point of contact for credit.

To meet that demand, the digital lending industry has expanded rapidly. The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has approved 505 digital lenders since 2022, creating a crowded market of companies competing to serve consumers overlooked by traditional banks.  

In 2025, Sycamore, a fintech,  disbursed close to