For nearly a year now, small businesses depending on Lidya’s debit mandate platform, Lidya Collect, have been unable to access the funds stored in their wallets.
The fintech, established in 2016 by Tunde Kehinde, the former co-founder of Jumia Nigeria, and Ercin Eksin, former CEO of Jumia Nigeria and COO of Jumia Africa, set out to provide credit to small businesses.
In 2020, Lidya expanded its operation to Poland and the Czech Republic, but closed its business in the Eastern European countries three years later, after raising $8.3 million in a Series B round.
When it pulled out of both markets in 2023, the company insisted that it would focus on building its new solution, Lidya Collect, in the Nigerian market. The product, a loan collection tool, enabled SMEs to automatically recover funds from customers by debiting their bank accounts with a standing instruction. The recovered funds were to be deposited in the businesses’ Lidya wallet.
Customers who spoke to Techpoint Africa revealed that they have made several attempts to withdraw their funds and contact the company over the past nine months, but to no avail.
“We sent a lot of emails since last year till now, and we have not gotten any response. Our money is stuck. Apart from the money that is stuck, we have layered millions of transactions on the platform, but now that the platform is failing, we have to recover those debts manually. It has been a horrible few months just trying to recover our money,” Ola*, one of Lidya’s customers, revealed to Techpoint Africa.
Customer difficulties at Lidya are only a reflection of broader operational issues within the company. In October 2024, Kehinde stepped down from his role as CEO and exited the company. Lidya’s CTO, Cristiano Machado, also exited the company in September 2024.
In March 2025, a customer reached out to Kehinde regarding difficulties accessing funds held with Lidya Collect. However, Kehinde informed them that he had stepped away from the company nearly a year ago and was no longer involved in operations or decision-making.
Kehinde further explained that the company’s board had appointed Itunu Efunkoya as the company’s CEO.
Efunkoya, who, according to her LinkedIn profile, joined Lidya in 2016 as a finance analyst and is currently the financial operations manager, did not comment on Kehinde’s claim that she had been appointed CEO.
Kehinde and Machado did not respond to Techpoint Africa’s request for comments regarding their exit.
However, a former employee at Lidya, who spoke to Techpoint Africa on the condition of anonymity, stated that they noticed the company might have run into problems in May 2024, when it was unable to pay the salaries of its tech team based in Portugal.
“The Portuguese team spent four months without getting paid, and everyone on the Portuguese team resigned between May and September 2024.”
The employee added that they were told Lidya was looking to raise new investment, but stated the investment never came.
“The investor decided not to go ahead with the investment, and apparently, there was no backup plan. And the other investors that were part of the board did not commit to pay what was owed to the employees.”
Lidya’s failure to pay its tech team and its inability to release customer funds suggest the company may be experiencing severe financial difficulties.
Its engineering team was reportedly based in Portugal, but with the resignation of all its members, there appears to be no one actively maintaining the company’s products.
Techpoint Africa reached out to Efunkoya, Lidya’s alleged CEO, for a statement, and in a written response, she said, “We are aware of the situation and are currently looking into it. We’re working to gather accurate information and will provide an update as soon as we’re able.”
No such update has been provided as of press time.
*— Not real name
