The 2025 investment cycle of Baobab Network, a trailblazing early-stage investor and accelerator, began with an undisclosed investment in CreditChek, a Nigerian credit evaluation platform that confirms African consumers’ creditworthiness.
Announcing the investment in the fintech startup on Friday, Baobab wrote, “The founding team combines deep fintech and technical expertise. CEO Kingsley Ibe brings multiple years of fintech experience, having previously built and scaled MicroMoni. CTO Lionel Orishane contributes over a decade of experience in systems architecture and cybersecurity.”
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Baobab Network said the combined expertise of the professional team at CreditChek inspired confidence and noted that the startup has designed a new system that lowers credit assessment integration time to only 72 hours.
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“Together, they’ve developed technology that reduces credit assessment integration time from nine months to just 72 hours, making it faster and more affordable for financial institutions to serve immigrant customers. We’ve seen how similar solutions, such as Nova Credit have successfully addressed cross-border credit challenges in the U.S., and we believe CreditChek is poised to tackle this critical gap for Africa’s projected 147 million emigrants by 2050.”
About CreditChek
CreditChek, which is based in Nigeria, makes it possible for banks and lenders to evaluate creditworthiness internationally in less than five minutes, hence facilitating access to financial services for African immigrants. The platform addresses an important issue: Given that their credit histories do not transfer between nations, 70 per cent of Africa’s 40 million yearly emigrants are denied access to fundamental financial services.
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CreditChek offers a comprehensive solution to close this gap by establishing connections with key African credit bureaus, utilising open banking for income assessments, and integrating with government databases for identity verification.
Interestingly, CreditChek leverages user-permitted, structured data from various sources to develop robust identity, credit, and verification services that enable banks, microfinance organisations, retail establishments, mobile money operators, and fintechs to develop better financial products for the underprivileged.
The startup’s goal is to close the trust gap that exists between African credit businesses and credit-worthy individuals.