One of the fundamental problems Atom seeks to address is the trade-off between investing for the future and meeting immediate financial obligations.<\/p>\n
In Nigeria, where households and small businesses frequently contend with unpredictable expenses, investors may be forced to liquidate their holdings to raise cash for emergencies, school fees, business opportunities or other financial commitments.\n<\/p>\n
Such decisions can interrupt long-term investment plans, particularly when investors are compelled to sell assets they would otherwise prefer to retain.\n<\/p>\n
Olaogun believes removing that constraint could change how individuals approach investing.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Atom, eligible customers can use those assets as security to access credit while retaining ownership and potential future upside,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
The platform is initially starting with eligible shares, with plans to expand the range of qualifying collateral to other investment and financial assets as the necessary arrangements become available.<\/p>\n
Its proposed model allows customers to establish a credit line against verified investments, draw funds when needed, repay, and subsequently access the facility again.\n<\/p>\n
Rather than repeatedly liquidating investments or beginning fresh loan applications, customers could maintain their portfolios while accessing liquidity when financial needs arise.\n<\/p>\n
Olaogun describes the proposition as allowing customers to \u201ckeep your assets, access your money and continue building wealth\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
The opportunity, he argues, extends beyond providing another borrowing option. It could also address one of the structural barriers to deeper participation in Nigeria\u2019s capital market: the fear of losing access to invested funds when immediate financial needs emerge.\n<\/p>\n
According to figures cited by Olaogun, retail investor participation on the Nigerian Exchange grew from fewer than one million in 2023 to more than six million in 2025. However, the number of people actively trading remains significantly smaller.<\/p>\n
For him, that gap represents an opportunity to encourage more Nigerians to become long-term asset owners.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThat uncertainty makes people reluctant to commit money to long-term investments. Even when they invest, the moment they need cash, they may sell,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
By connecting investment ownership with access to credit, Atom seeks to make financial assets more useful beyond their potential appreciation.\n<\/p>\n
The opportunity also extends beyond listed equities to fixed deposits, money-market investments and other forms of asset ownership.\n<\/p>\n
Managing the risks of asset-backed lending<\/strong><\/p>\n However, using investment portfolios as collateral introduces a different set of risks, particularly in a market where asset prices can fluctuate significantly.\n<\/p>\n Unlike conventional secured lending backed by relatively stable assets, investment-backed credit exposes lenders to market volatility, depreciation and liquidity challenges.\n<\/p>\n A decline in the value of underlying securities could weaken the collateral supporting a loan, potentially leaving lenders exposed if borrowers fail to repay.\n<\/p>\n Olaogun said CredPal has designed Atom\u2019s risk-management framework around protecting customers\u2019 investments while safeguarding the capital being lent.\n<\/p>\n The company\u2019s technology assesses collateral based on its liquidity, volatility and prevailing market conditions rather than applying identical lending limits across different assets.<\/p>\n It also incorporates safeguards that could give borrowers time to respond when the value of their investments changes.\n<\/p>\n Depending on the facility, these measures include conservative initial lending limits, early warnings, additional collateral requirements and partial repayments before liquidation becomes necessary.\n<\/p>\n \u201cLiquidation should be a last resort, not the normal customer experience, although it cannot always be avoided in rapidly moving markets,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n Cost is another consideration.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n Nigeria\u2019s high borrowing costs have made access to affordable financing a persistent challenge for individuals and businesses. Olaogun argues that better-secured lending could reduce credit risk and create room for more competitive pricing.<\/p>\n He illustrated the model with a customer holding N5 million in eligible investments who needs N1 million to support a business.\n<\/p>\n Rather than selling the shares or applying for another loan, the customer could access a credit line backed by the verified investments, subject to the applicable lending conditions.\n<\/p>\n Once established, eligible drawdowns could become almost immediate, with the borrower repaying and accessing the facility again when necessary.\n<\/p>\n \u201cIt changes credit from something you repeatedly apply for into financial flexibility supported by assets you already own,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n While Atom is being introduced as a new vertical within CredPal, Olaogun sees its larger commercial opportunity in providing the underlying infrastructure to other financial institutions.<\/p>\n Through Atom Business, the company intends to offer banks, fintechs, telecommunications companies, asset managers and investment platforms access to investment and secured-lending capabilities through application programming interfaces (APIs) and white-label infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n The proposition is that these institutions can introduce investment products, portfolio management and asset-backed credit to their existing customers without independently developing the entire technology and lending infrastructure.\n<\/p>\n Olaogun believes this could be particularly valuable as more Nigerian financial institutions seek to convert growing interest in investment products into sustained customer engagement.\n<\/p>\n Recent initial public offerings and public offers have demonstrated retail appetite for investment opportunities, but he argues that allowing customers to subscribe to securities is only the beginning.\n<\/p>\n The larger opportunity lies in enabling customers to trade, build portfolios, access investment intelligence and eventually unlock liquidity against their holdings.<\/p>\n For participating institutions, the model could create several revenue streams, including trading income, infrastructure fees, revenue-sharing arrangements and secured-lending income.\n<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest opportunity for us is Atom Business,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not building it for CredPal customers alone.\u201d\n<\/p>\n The company is also engaging institutional capital providers to strengthen its lending capacity as demand expands, recognising that the ability to mobilise capital will be important to scaling the model.\n<\/p>\n Over the next 12 to 24 months, CredPal wants to significantly expand its secured-credit portfolio, increase active investment participation and position Atom as an infrastructure partner for financial institutions.\n<\/p>\n Building beyond Nigeria<\/strong><\/p>\n Olaogun\u2019s ambitions for Atom extend beyond Nigeria, with the company looking to establish a model that can support the broader African financial ecosystem.\n<\/p>\n CredPal has studied investment-backed lending models in markets such as India and Brazil, where developments in securities lending and digital financial infrastructure have provided lessons for connecting asset ownership with credit.\n<\/p>\n In India, established frameworks support lending against securities through collateral eligibility requirements, loan-to-value limits, and ongoing monitoring. Brazil has also explored how digital infrastructure can make financial assets easier to use as collateral.\n<\/p>\n For Olaogun, the lesson from these markets is that the opportunity is not simply about lending against investments. It is about developing the infrastructure that makes the process efficient, repeatable, and accessible at scale.\n<\/p>\n He believes Africa\u2019s next phase of financial-market development will depend partly on connecting investment access, asset ownership and credit through technology that serves multiple institutions.<\/p>\n That ambition places Atom in a different category from a conventional consumer-facing investment application. Rather than relying exclusively on customers downloading and using CredPal\u2019s platform, the company wants Atom to become the technology layer powering investment and liquidity products across financial institutions.\n<\/p>\n \u201cWe see Atom becoming the infrastructure behind investment and liquidity products offered by many of Africa\u2019s financial institutions, not just a product distributed through our own app,\u201d Olaogun said.<\/p>\n Chinwe Michael is a Nigerian business journalist and media professional with over 4 years of experience covering companies, financial markets, banking, fintech, economic policy, financial inclusion, and corporate affairs. She currently leads the Companies & Markets desk at BusinessDay, where she drives coverage of Nigeria\u2019s corporate and capital markets, translates complex financial data into accessible stories, and mentors younger journalists. Prior to that, she was the head of the financial inclusion\/fintech desk. With a background in banking and finance and extensive experience in media and communications, Michael has developed expertise in financial journalism, economic analysis, investigative reporting and market intelligence. Her work examines how monetary policy, corporate performance, capital flows, technology, and regulatory decisions affect businesses, investors, and households. She was selected from about 3,000 applicants as one of 20 journalists for Cohort 4 of the MTN Media Innovation Programme, gaining exposure to new approaches to journalism, technology, and media innovation. Her international journalism experience and engagement with professionals across Russia, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and others in different sectors have further broadened her understanding of global communication and development.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Source: <\/p>\n For years, Nigeria\u2019s digital lending market has largely revolved around one proposition: making credit more accessible to individuals and businesses that struggle to obtain financing through traditional banking channels. But… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17462,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17461\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/How-Atom-by-CredPal-is-building-the-infrastructure-to-turn-investments-into-everyday-liquidity-Businessday-NG.jpg\")
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