Every year Nigerians living abroad send nearly $24bn in remittances back home.
As a Nigerian American I experienced first hand the financial importance of the Nigerian diaspora. My parents, aunts and uncles in America always felt an obligation to send as much money as they could back to Nigeria to support their family and community.
Every year, till this day, they send a considerable amount of money back home. Considering they have been in America for nearly 50 years that’s collectively a lot of capital that has been transferred.
What if there was a better way for them to have a greater impact back home, without ever having to send money?
Before we started SympliFi, I worked for a company that owned and operated microfinance institutions across Africa. I saw first hand the power of microfinance - how a small loan to a motivated entrepreneur can grow into a successful business. I am reminded of the time I visited one of our microfinance banks in Africa. One of the branch managers was telling me about their best customer, a man named James. James started his relationship with the bank with a small loan of $300 for informal trading. After a number of years building his business he now receives a monthly credit facility of $50,000 to support his import/export trading business. James is one of many inspiring examples.
I couldn’t help but think of how the money my family sends to Nigeria could be used in a more impactful way. What if instead of sending a remittance, my family could have helped those back home access a small loan to start or grow a business, similar to James? Now what if we multiplied that by the millions of Nigerians living abroad? How many success stories could we have in Nigeria and how could that transform the Nigerian economy? We may never need to send another remittance again. This is why we started SympliFi.
Our platform enables diaspora to instantly guarantee a small business loan for family or friends in their home country, at the touch of a button. To empower them to independently improve their livelihood and give them the opportunity to be the next James.
Why is this important to us? Because at SympliFi we believe the people that are best positioned to build prosperity in a community are the people from that community, whether they are near or far. Our mission is to empower those that are far to do so.
We are just getting started.
