Despite Nigeria’s status as a leader in African financial technology, the nation’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face a persistent credit crisis. While fintech firms have successfully optimized infrastructure for rapid transaction processing, these systems lack the capacity to assess long-term creditworthiness for businesses. Current lending models rely heavily on consumer behavior data, which fails to align with the unique cash conversion cycles of small businesses. With fewer than five percent of MSMEs able to access formal bank loans, analysts argue that the industry must pivot its engineering focus toward specialized SME data models and open banking to bridge this significant financing gap.