Experts Say AI Can Transform Access To Credit & Financial Services
AI Positioned to Expand Financial Access
EXPERTS have said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) possesses the capacity to significantly improve access to finance through faster, smarter and more personalised credit assessment systems.
They made the submission during the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN) Techpreneur Summit themed, “Innovate to Capital,” held in Lagos, where stakeholders examined the role of emerging technologies in strengthening financial inclusion and supporting innovation-driven enterprises.
The discussions focused on how AI is reshaping lending models, improving customer profiling and enabling financial institutions to make more informed credit decisions.
Responsible AI Requires Quality Data
Speaking at the summit, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of PiggyVest, Odunayo Eweniyi, said AI would not hinder innovation if deployed responsibly and supported by high-quality data.
According to her, AI systems ultimately reflect the information and human judgments used in their development.
“AI is only as good as the people training it. Tech exacerbates what you give to it.
“If your decision making was innately biased as a person, you feed that to a machine, it learns it and turns out biased decision making at scale,” she said.
Eweniyi stressed that ethical deployment of AI remains inseparable from the ethics, values and governance standards of the organisations using the technology.
Human Oversight Remains Essential
While acknowledging the efficiency of AI-driven decision-making systems, Eweniyi argued that human oversight must remain central to financial services.
She noted that individuals should retain the right to challenge decisions made through automated systems, especially in sensitive areas such as lending and credit approval.
“Ordinarily, people should be able to contest a credit decision about them, whether or not AI made it.
“A human should be able to appeal, so when AI makes decisions, humans should still be able to appeal,” she said.
Her remarks highlighted growing conversations around accountability, transparency and consumer protection as financial institutions increasingly adopt AI tools.
AI Enhancing Credit Assessment
Also speaking, Chief Product Officer of Credit Direct Limited, Mr. Nifemi Oluboyede, said AI was already improving both the speed and accuracy of credit assessments.
He explained that lenders can now analyse multiple customer data points simultaneously and provide financial products tailored to individual needs.
According to him, AI is not replacing human judgment but rather strengthening and accelerating existing lending processes.
“What we’ve done with AI is to speed up that process more than it is replacing the human-centeredness around it.
“At the end of the day, there is definitely that need for that human eyeball,” he said.
Oluboyede maintained that a balance between technology and human review remains essential for effective risk management and responsible lending.
Technology Driving MSME Growth
Earlier, Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Services at the Development Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Ijeoma Ozulumba, underscored the importance of technology-driven Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to Nigeria’s economic growth.
She noted that Nigeria’s technology ecosystem continues to witness remarkable expansion, particularly in financial technology, climate innovation and other technology-enabled sectors.
According to her, innovation remains critical to unlocking economic opportunities, creating jobs and expanding access to capital.
The Development Bank of Nigeria was established to improve access to finance, technical assistance and capacity-building support for MSMEs across the country.
