Bangladesh’s The Social Loan Company Expands to Nigeria

The Social Loan Company (TSLC), a digital-first lender founded in Bangladesh, announced Monday (Oct. 31) that it is launching its platform in Africa for the first time thanks to two partnerships in Nigeria.

The African expansion will see TSLC apply its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) approach to lending in Nigeria.

In a press release announcing the expansion, TSLC said that Nigeria has seen a 54% increase in FinTech usage among consumers, which it calls the “primary enabler of financial inclusion in the region.”

Related: FinTechs Solve Nigeria’s Financial Inclusion Challenge

Commenting on the launch, Deepak H. Saluja, co-founder and group CEO at TSLC, said:

“Financial exclusion negatively impacts the lives of over 50% of adults in Africa. Despite massive FinTech usage, financial inclusion remains a concern for Africans. As a FinTech innovator, we aim to provide affordable and transparent access to credit and other basic financial services that improve the financial well-being of digital natives.

“We aim to achieve this in Nigeria through our unique AI/ML-powered neo-banking platform and by partnering with leading banking and non-banking institutions in the region.”

Joining him, Moyen Uddin, deputy managing director, Dhaka Bank Limited, Bangladesh, added. “We see affordable access to financial services as critical to improving the financial wellness of our consumers.”

He said that in Bangladesh, “we’ve achieved astonishing success, including a 40% monthly increase in MAU (Monthly Active User), serving millions of Bangladeshi Gen Zs and millennials in a pilot phase, and we’re about to lunch it publicly in a grand ceremony with regulatory approval.”

TSLC also operates in India under the CASHe brand. The company states that its ultimate goal is to serve the financially underserved globally. After launching in Nigeria, TSLC plans to scale the platform further across the country and region through 2023.

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