EasyBuy: credit at the moment of purchase, not at the branch

Millions of Nigerians in the low-to-middle income bracket are locked out of smartphone ownership by prohibitive upfront costs, and with it locked out of the education, financial services, and economic opportunity a smartphone unlocks. Stanbic IBTC Bank partnered with Easybuy, operated by Newedge Finance Limited, to solve this directly at the point of sale.

I led product management and delivery for the initiative: a financing product embedded inside the retail store experience, decisioned instantly, and open to Nigerians aged 18 to 59 whether or not they had ever banked with Stanbic IBTC.

Existing credit products were built for people who already had banking relationships. They required accounts, lengthy approvals, and documentation that further excluded the people who needed help most. Meanwhile the moment of genuine purchase intent, a customer standing in a store holding the phone they want, had no financing option attached to it.

• ›High upfront device costs blocking access for low-to-middle income Nigerians
• ›No accessible point-of-sale financing option linked to device purchase intent
• ›Existing credit products required prior banking relationships and slow approvals
• ›Retail partners (Easybuy stores) lacked a financing solution to close sales

• Decisioning had to be instantThe product lives inside a retail sale. A credit decision that takes hours or days is a lost sale, so profiling, offer calculation, and approval had to complete while the customer stood at the counter.
• No banking relationship could be assumedThe target segment included customers with no Stanbic IBTC account and thin formal credit history. The product had to create the banking relationship during the purchase, not require it beforehand.
• The device is the collateralWith no traditional collateral available in this segment, security had to come from the financed device itself, enforced through Easybuy software installed at the point of sale.
• Two companies, one customer journeyThe bank owned the lending infrastructure; Easybuy owned the stores, agents, and credit algorithm. Every step of the journey had to hand off cleanly across that boundary without the customer feeling it.

This was a true partnership delivery. Stanbic IBTC provided the lending infrastructure, account opening systems, and risk appetite; Newedge Finance brought the Easybuy retail network, in-store agents, proprietary credit algorithm, and the device collateral mechanism.

Internally, delivery ran sprint-based across product, tech, risk, and compliance workstreams. I owned the product across that landscape: structuring the partnership proposition, aligning both organisations on the journey design, and keeping the risk and compliance positions intact while the eligibility model was deliberately relaxed.

The proposition was grounded in the real constraints of the excluded segment: why existing lending products failed them, and what an acceptable journey looked like from their side of the counter. The answers were consistent. Prior banking relationships, slow approvals, and heavy documentation were the exclusion mechanisms, and any product that kept them would keep excluding.

That research shaped the eligibility envelope: ages 18 to 59, salaried and self-employed alike, profiled by phone number through the Easybuy algorithm rather than by an existing credit file.

Put the credit where the intent is. Instead of building a lending channel and hoping eligible customers found it, the product embedded financing into the exact moment a customer selects a phone in an Easybuy store. The in-store agent, the algorithm, and the bank's infrastructure complete the entire journey, from profiling to device release, in a single visit.

The second strategic layer was customer acquisition. Non-customers were automatically onboarded to Stanbic IBTC accounts during the purchase flow, so every financed device also grew the bank's customer base. Access to funds followed through mobile app, internet banking, USSD, or branch.

• option 01Conventional device loans through bank channelsThe status quo. Requiring an existing account, an application, and an approval cycle is precisely the structure that excluded the target segment; scaling it harder would not change who it reached.
• option 02Bank-built in-store financing without a partnerOwning the whole stack would keep control inside the bank, but the bank had no retail device footprint, no in-store agents, and no purpose-built profiling algorithm. Building all three would cost the market window.
• option 03Partnership embedding bank credit into Easybuy storesThe chosen path. Each party contributed the asset the other lacked: Stanbic IBTC the balance sheet and account infrastructure, Easybuy the distribution, the algorithm, and the collateral mechanism. Fastest route to a live product in front of the right customers.

• Relaxed profiling over conservative underwritingA strict credit model would have protected the loan book by excluding most of the intended market. The product deliberately relaxed the profiling model to maximise approvals, and balanced that with risk guardrails, down payments, and device-level collateral enforcement.
• Partner-mediated repayment over direct bank collectionCustomers repay Easybuy directly, with remittance to the bank on the 1st of each month. That kept the customer journey simple and the partnership clean, at the cost of the bank collecting through an intermediary rather than holding the repayment relationship itself.
• Shared journey over full controlEmbedding the product in Easybuy stores meant the bank's brand experience was partly delivered by partner agents and partner software. The reach and speed of a live retail network was worth more than end-to-end control.

1. 01. Proposition and partnership designStructured the product proposition, the split of responsibilities between Stanbic IBTC and Newedge Finance, and the go-to-market plan.
2. 02. Credit risk designWorked the relaxed profiling model with risk: eligibility envelope, down payment logic, tenor options, and the guardrails that kept expanded approval rates within the bank's risk appetite.
3. 03. API integrationIntegrated the Easybuy algorithm with Stanbic IBTC's core banking and account opening systems, including the automated onboarding path for non-customers inside the purchase flow.
4. 04. Journey and collateral mechanicsSpecified the in-store journey end to end: agent profiling, offer presentation, BVN and ID capture, down payment transfer, collateral software installation, and proof-of-purchase capture.
5. 05. Sprint-based deliveryRan delivery across product, tech, risk, and compliance workstreams in agile sprints through to launch.

The product is best read as a single in-store journey that quietly crosses two companies' systems. The Easybuy algorithm handles profiling and offer calculation; Stanbic IBTC's core banking and account opening systems handle the lending and, for non-customers, create the banking relationship mid-purchase; the device itself becomes the collateral through software installed before release.

1. Step 1Customer visits any Easybuy retail store and selects a preferred smartphone
2. Step 2In-store agent profiles the customer via the Easybuy algorithm using their phone number
3. Step 3Algorithm instantly calculates the required down payment and eligible loan amount
4. Step 4Customer provides BVN, a valid ID, and debit/credit card details
5. Step 5Customer selects preferred repayment tenor and reviews monthly instalment amount
6. Step 6Down payment is transferred to Easybuy's designated account
7. Step 7Easybuy software is installed on the device as collateral assurance
8. Step 8Agent releases the phone to the customer and captures a proof-of-purchase photo

The partnership launched a live consumer financing product that brought instant point-of-sale credit to Nigerians regardless of their existing banking relationship. The relaxed credit profiling model embedded in the in-store workflow dramatically expanded eligibility while maintaining acceptable risk parameters for the bank, and automated onboarding grew the bank's customer base alongside loan volume.

Beyond the commercial result, the initiative expanded access to essential technology for individuals whose economic participation depends on smartphone ownership: financial products designed around real user constraints, driving both business growth and social impact.

• ›Distribution is the product. The credit itself was not novel; putting it inside the moment of purchase intent is what made it work for a segment every conventional channel had missed.
• ›Partnerships work when each party contributes what the other cannot build quickly. The bank brought balance sheet and infrastructure, Easybuy brought stores, agents, and the algorithm; neither alone had a viable product.
• ›Inclusion is an eligibility design problem. Relaxed profiling plus device collateral plus down payments reached customers a credit-file-first model never would, without abandoning risk discipline.