Airtime lending is the perfect Nigerian fintech business. The amounts people borrow are usually so small, they don’t feel like loans. Collection is also ruthless and elegant; if you don’t pay back, that SIM card becomes almost useless.

This beautiful business of airtime lending is one of the engines of a fintech business that generated ₦83.2 billion in revenue in six months.

This is the kind of story you’ll read on Notadeepdive. How does a hundred-naira airtime become a ₦83 billion business? Who built it and why does it work so well?

Every Friday and Sunday, I follow one of those small threads into a company or a market. Sometimes it helps you see why a business is so brilliant; other times, you see why some ideas struggled and failed.

Along the way, you will encounter GMV, impairments, take rates and other corporate language invented to make ordinary ideas sound important. If the jargon matters, I will translate it. If it doesn’t, I will leave it with the consultants.

We also make films for YouTube and a podcast, Africa Built.

To sponsor Notadeepdive, email olumuyiwa@notadeepdive.com.

Olumuyiwa