BAS Finance: SME Lending Requires Better Risk Assessment, Not Just More Capital

* Firm disburses N55bn to over 120 businesses in nine months, expands invoice-backed financing

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja 

The Managing Director of BAS Finance, Adnan Kayode, has said that expanding access to credit for Nigerian small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) requires better risk assessment and a deeper understanding of businesses’ transactions rather than an exclusive reliance on conventional collateral.

Kayode said lenders could improve access to financing by assessing verifiable invoices, buyers and delivery records to determine the repayment capacity of businesses that might otherwise struggle to secure credit from traditional banks.

He spoke as BAS Finance emerged SME Lender of the Year at the 2026 BusinessDay Banking and Financial Institutions (BAFI) Awards held on October 9 at The Civic Centre, Lagos.

The company’s sister subsidiary, BAS Capital, also won the SME Investment Bank of the Year award, recognising its role in structuring and raising capital for businesses seeking to expand beyond conventional borrowing.

Explaining the company’s lending philosophy, in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, Kayode said the challenge facing many businesses was not necessarily the absence of viable commercial opportunities but the difficulty of satisfying the requirements through which financial institutions assess creditworthiness.

“Lending to a small business well is an underwriting problem before it is a capital problem,” he said.

“If you can see the invoice, the buyer and the delivery record, you are not taking the risk the market thinks you are taking. What we have built is the ability to see those things quickly enough for the financing to still be useful.”

BAS Finance said it disbursed N55 billion to more than 120 businesses over nine months, with an average transaction size of N2 billion and a median disbursement period of seven days.

The company focuses on financing businesses that fall outside conventional banking criteria, particularly through arrangements linked to receivables and productive assets.

Its approach places emphasis on identifiable commercial transactions and repayment sources, offering an alternative for businesses whose financing applications may be constrained by collateral requirements or lengthy approval processes.

Through Zuvy Technologies, acquired by BAS Group in 2025, BAS Finance has also expanded its invoice-backed financing services to suppliers of large corporate organisations.

The model enables suppliers to seek financing against invoices arising from completed or verifiable transactions, potentially easing the pressure on working capital while they await payment from corporate buyers.

Kayode’s position highlights a broader challenge in Nigeria’s SME financing market, where the cost of borrowing is only one of several obstacles confronting business owners seeking formal credit.

Lengthy application procedures, collateral requirements and difficulties demonstrating creditworthiness have also constrained access to financing, particularly for enterprises with limited fixed assets but identifiable customers and commercial transactions.

Estimates of Nigeria’s SME financing gap vary according to the methodology used. However, a figure of approximately N13 trillion was presented at the 2025 Annual Directors Conference of the Chartered Institute of Directors, underscoring the scale of the challenge.

Micro, small and medium enterprises account for a substantial share of economic activity and employment, yet many continue to face difficulties obtaining financing suited to their operational needs.

BAS Group’s position is that addressing the challenge requires lenders and investment institutions to match financing instruments to businesses’ circumstances, rather than treating every funding request as a conventional loan application.

Group Chief Executive Officer, Abdulateef Hussein, said businesses required different forms of capital depending on their activities and stages of development.

“The question is not only whether capital exists. It is whether anyone has done the work of matching it to the business in front of them,” Hussein said.

He explained that a manufacturer seeking funds to fulfil a confirmed order might require short-term working capital, while a company pursuing an acquisition or major expansion might need structured growth capital.

“Most of what gets called a funding gap is a translation failure,” he added.

The group’s approach combines lending with investment banking and capital-raising services through its subsidiaries.

While BAS Finance provides working capital and transaction-linked financing, BAS Capital advises companies that have outgrown conventional lending but remain below the threshold that typically attracts larger investment banking institutions.

BAS Capital’s Managing Director, Yinka Adetuberu, said many growing businesses needed financial institutions willing to undertake the structuring required to attract institutional and development finance investors.

“The companies we work with are not short of ambition or of a market. They are short of someone willing to do the structuring work at their size,” Adetuberu said.

The company reported closing more than 25 transactions valued at over N50 billion in 2026.

The recognition of both subsidiaries at the BAFI Awards highlights the two financing approaches pursued by the group: providing credit to businesses with identifiable commercial transactions and structuring investment capital for companies seeking to finance their next stage of growth.

Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Abuja, BAS Group operates across lending, investment banking, wealth and asset management, insurance and financial technology.

Its subsidiaries include BAS Finance, BAS Capital, BAS Wealth, BAS Financial Services, BAS Technologies, ALLY Healthcare and ALLY Microinsurance.

The group said the latest recognition marked the second consecutive year its companies had received awards at the BAFI ceremony. BAS Capital was previously named Emerging Investment Bank of the Year.