Nigerian digital lender Lidya shuts down operations

October 23, 2025

Nigerian digital lender Lidya shuts down operations despite raising $16.45 million and nearly a decade after launching, Techpoint Africa has learnt.

“Despite best efforts to restructure and sustain operations, the Company has encountered severe financial distress and is no longer able to continue in business. As a result, the Company has ceased all operations,” an email to customers read.

Founded by Jumia alumni Tunde Kehinde and Ercin Eksin, Lidya began by providing small and medium businesses with access to fast, collateral-free loans through its digital platform. Over time, the startup shifted its focus, experimenting with different business models to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive lending market.

In 2020, Lidya expanded beyond Africa, setting up operations in Poland and the Czech Republic as part of its European push. The following year, it raised $8.3 million in a pre-Series B round.

But by 2023, the company exited both European markets, citing a renewed focus on Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s tech-savvy lending ecosystem is the ideal launchpad for our solutions, which support data-driven decision-making,” Kehinde said at the time.

That renewed focus birthed Lidya Collect, a loan recovery platform for businesses designed to improve repayment rates and streamline debt collection.

However, the product appears to have struggled to meet expectations. Reports from affected customers suggest widespread issues, including frozen funds and failed transactions.

“Our money is stuck. Apart from the money that’s locked up, we’ve layered millions of transactions on the platform, and now that it’s failing, we have to recover those debts manually. It’s been a horrible few months just trying to recover our money,” one customer told Techpoint Africa earlier this year.

Those concerns may now deepen following Lidya’s formal shutdown. “Due to the Company’s financial status, it is unable to process funds or settle claims at this time,” the company said in its customer email.

The closure caps months of internal turbulence. Both co-founder Tunde Kehinde and Chief Technology Officer Cristiano Machado left the company in October and September 2024, respectively, and Lidya’s tech team, based in Portugal, reportedly disbanded between May and September that year as the company failed to meet payroll obligations.

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