The Future of Debt: Can Fintech Fill the Gap?

<p>How can small businesses gain access to the working capital they need? Zach Bijesse of Payhippo and Tunde Kehinde of Lidya are trying to figure it out. Hear how new technologies are changing the future of lending for small businesses in Nigeria, Africa, and the world.</p><p>With over 200 million people and 40 million small businesses, Nigeria is the perfect spot to launch a fintech company that’s trying to push the boundaries of how businesses get capital. Both <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zbijesse/?originalSubdomain=ng" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Zach Bijesse</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tunde-kehinde-048aa635/?originalSubdomain=ng" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tunde Kehinde</a> saw a huge market opportunity in Nigeria with its sheer size and strong startup culture. Their companies, <a href="https://payhippo.ng/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Payhippo</a> and <a href="https://www.lidya.info/home/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lidya</a>, respectively, are using artificial intelligence and machine learning to make lending faster and more accessible for entrepreneurs, and in turn, more successful for this new breed of lender.</p><p>Zach makes the problem clear: “Businesses can’t get money in Nigeria when they need it. It’s that simple.”&nbsp;</p><p>Tunde believes that artificial — and human — intelligence are key to filling the small business lending gap. “Humans are involved in setting the rules. I think on average per loan, we have close to a thousand data points we look at. And so humans are looking to say, based on our assessment criteria, is it working or not working? And if it's not working, how do we tweak the rules to make sure the recollection is done properly?”&nbsp;</p><p>Likewise Zach’s Payhippo endorses ongoing experimentation and the importance of training their algorithms to get better over time. “People forget that you can only train your machine learning algorithm based on your data set. So, you know, we have a