By Chukwuma Umeorah
Credit Direct Finance Company Limited (Credit Direct), the consumer finance arm of FCMB Group Plc, has announced the successful payout of its N6.9 billion Series I and II commercial paper issued in November 2023 on the FMDQ Securities Exchange.
The credit rating of the consumer lending company was also upgraded to BBB+ by Augusto & Co which noted that, “The upgrade reflects Credit Direct’s dominant position in the industry and its good and consistent profitability, which compares better than most peers in the consumer lending segment.”
Commenting on the upgrade, The Managing Director/CEO of Credit Direct, Chukwuma Nwanze said, “The upgrade to BBB+ is a remarkable achievement considering the high inflationary and turbulent macroeconomic environment we are navigating. This reflects our robust financial health and strategic agility but also our resilient business model focused on expanding financial inclusion for Nigerians, our sound risk management practices, and the trust we have built with our customers and stakeholders.”
He added that the strong investor confidence demonstratesthe participation in its commercial papers and underscores its position as one of Nigeria’s leading digital-first non-bank financial services providers. “We extend our deepest gratitude to our investors for their trust, and we remain dedicated to delivering exceptional value and fostering long-term partnerships that is critical in achieving our ambition to expand financial inclusion for all Nigerians,” Nwanze affirmed.
Highlighting the financial performance of the business in the first half of 2024, the Chief Financial Officer at Credit Direct, Kolawole Omoniyi, explained that the company is continuing its growth trajectory despite a tough business clime.
Omoniyi stated “We delivered a strong financial performance in 2023 and have continued the momentum in the first half of 2024. In our H1 2024 unaudited financial performance, we achieved a 105 per cent year-on-year growth in interest income. This helped to raise our profitability by 154 per cent in the first six months of the year compared with the corresponding period last year. We also continued to see significant improvements in our cost efficiency and asset quality ratios as our cost to income ratio declined by 370bps while our NPL ratio had also declined 221bps as at end of H1 2024. Our return on average equity improved to 65.6 per cent while our return on average assets also improved to 10.5 per cent wrapping up a strong H1 2024 financial period.”
Beyond the strong financial performance, the company reported that it had also made significant progress in its digital transformation implementation to ensure that the company is ready for the future including the deployment of self-service loan origination channels, automated customer profiling and credit decisioning which have contributed to improved asset quality and a reduced cost-to-income ratio, even in the face of high inflation.