Why embedded nano lending is accelerating
Small, short-term “nano loans” have become one of the fastest-growing financial products across emerging markets. From topping up airtime to smoothing daily cash flow, nano loans have become a natural part of how many people manage money. The global nano lending market, already worth more than US$228 billion, is projected to almost double by 2033, making it one of the fastest-growing segments in digital finance.
These micro, high-frequency loans reflect the lived realities of customers with irregular or daily income cycles. A farmer may borrow a few dollars to buy feed in the morning and repay by nightfall. A street vendor might take a short-term loan to buy ingredients, cook, sell, and settle the credit within hours.
From mobile operators, digital wallets, and banks, nano lending offers clear value: higher engagement, stronger loyalty, and meaningful financial inclusion.
Nano lending looks simple from the user’s perspective. Behind the scenes, it requires a sophisticated engine: real-time decisioning, alternative data scoring, and automated credit workflows. Most organisations don’t yet have these capabilities in-house – prompting the central question: build or partner?
Building in-house: total control, slower pace
Building an in-house lending platform gives organisations full control over the technology that underpins their credit products. It allows teams to design loan workflows and customer journeys across nano, installment, and revolving products, and to shape the long-term roadmap around their own priorities.
But it comes with commitments. Real-time scoring engines and loan management system integration and reconciliation take significant time and specialist talent to develop. Many organisations lack predictive risk analysts, data scientists, and engineers experienced in high-frequency credit systems. Existing infrastructure can slow down integration and scaling. And even once technology is ready, operational and regulatory alignment often adds months before launch.
In short, building offers control but demands heavy investment (CapEx and OpEx) and long lead times.
Partnering with a fintech: faster launches, proven systems
Partnering with a fintech provides a faster and lighter route. API-led platforms like Ezra allow operators and financial institutions to integrate via API and launch nano lending within weeks, using infrastructure already tested across multiple markets.
This approach reduces upfront costs, accelerates time-to-market, and provides access to richer alternative data models whilst leveraging specialist and experienced credit life cycle resources and IP. It also enables stable high-volume performance, especially for organisations that want to launch quickly or experiment with new credit products.
The trade-off is shared ownership of the underlying technology. Clear strategic alignment and joint ownership alignment, governance frameworks around data, compliance, and decision-making are essential. But when executed well, partnerships have delivered strong national-scale outcomes, as seen in projects with Orange Money and Access Bank Botswana, and aYo Intermediaries in South Africa.
Cost and time-to-value: the hidden factors
Beyond technology, the long-term cost picture plays a major role in the build-or-partner decision. Building internally requires upfront investment, ongoing optimisation, and specialised talent. Partnering converts much of that into predictable operating cost and brings products to market months sooner. For many institutions, the early learning curve and the ability to iterate with real customer data becomes the biggest driver of ROI.
Who owns the data in a build-or-partner model?
In both models, the institution owns the customer relationship and the customer data. Partnering with a fintech does not transfer data ownership. Instead, the fintech uses only the data required for product offering, scoring, decisioning, exposure assignment, and credit operations, under a governed and contractually defined framework.
This protects customer trust while enabling performance. In practice, this means:
- Customer and transaction data remain fully with the operator, wallet, or bank
- All data use is purpose-bound and governed by contract
- The fintech cannot repurpose, resell, or independently monetise the data
- Regulatory compliance remains aligned to local requirements, standards and institutional policies
Ezra’s model follows this structure. Institutions retain data ownership and oversight, while Ezra uses shared inputs solely to power risk and affordability assessments, exposure management, credit offers, and lending customer journeys and workflows, ensuring transparency, control, and regulatory alignment.
Regulation and risk: responsibility stays with the institution
Whether building or partnering, regulatory accountability remains with the operator, wallet provider, or bank. A fintech can manage product and lending management, scoring and credit workflows, and customer journeys, but oversight, governance, and customer protection still sit with the institution.
Ezra’s operating model supports this division of responsibility. Its risk engine aligns with local regulatory expectations and credit risk management best practices, and its repayment performance, about 97 percent within 90 days, demonstrates how alternative data can support responsible lending at scale.
Scaling nano loans for the future
Most organisations begin with nano loans, then expand into adjacent credit products such as airtime advances, bill-pay credit, merchant credit, or instalment solutions. Choosing a scalable foundation helps support multi-market expansion and new product lines without repeated rebuilds – an important consideration for operators and financial institutions with regional or multi-country footprints.
How Ezra simplifies deployment without forcing a rebuild
For organisations that want speed without a major system overhaul or specialist resource investment, Ezra offers a practical middle ground. Its API integrates directly with core systems or digital channels, enabling nano lending with minimal disruption. The risk engine analyses wallet activity, airtime usage, and behavioural trends to score customers with little or no formal credit history more accurately. Ezra also manages origination, decisioning, repayment, and portfolio optimisation.
Today, Ezra’s lending platform & risk management engine operates in 25 countries, approving cash loans to more than 40 million active “loan” users, with a current annual disbursement value of approximately US$500 million. This scale gives operators, wallets, and banks confidence that they can deploy nano lending reliably and at high volume.
A simple framework for deciding whether to build or partner
A few questions help clarify the approach to take.
- How quickly do we need to launch?
- Can our existing systems handle real-time, high-frequency transactions?
- Do we have in-house talent for alternative data modelling?
- Is full ownership of the lending stack a strategic priority?
- How much upfront investment is realistic?
- Would a proven platform help us scale faster and more reliably?
Organisations focused on speed, scale, and iterative learning usually lean toward partnering.
Those prioritising long-term control and internal capability building may choose to develop in-house or adopt a hybrid strategy.
The future of embedded credit is collaborative
Nano lending is reshaping access to financial services across mobile, wallet, and banking ecosystems. Building in-house provides control but requires time and deep expertise. Partnering enables faster rollout and proven performance, helping institutions support customers more quickly and responsibly.
The organisations that win in embedded credit will be those that balance agility with strong risk practices and choose the model that best fits their strategy. Platforms like Ezra make that pathway clearer, bridging technology, alternative data, and scale so operators, wallets, and banks can serve customers when it matters most.
To learn how Ezra supports mobile operators, digital wallets, and banks in launching nano lending at scale, reach out to our team for a conversation.
