Lending Lead at AjoCard Limited

Role Overview

The Lending Lead is responsible for driving the overall lending strategy, ensuring profitable portfolio growth, robust credit quality, and compliance with regulatory standards. The role requires a balance of strategic leadership, operational excellence, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver innovative lending solutions that align with business goals.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Define and execute the lending strategy across retail, MSME, and digital loan products
• Lead the lending, credit, and recovery teams to achieve performance targets
• Build a high-performance culture through recruitment, training, coaching, and mentoring
• Acquire and penetrate new market opportunities and market environments
• Champion a customer-centric lending culture while balancing risk and returns

Credit & Risk Management

• Oversee end-to-end lending operations: credit assessment, approval, disbursement, monitoring, restructuring, and recovery
• Implement data-driven credit scoring models and portfolio monitoring and reporting tools
• Ensure compliance with CBN, NDIC, and MFB lending regulations
• Develop early warning systems for delinquency management

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement

• Work closely with Product & Engineering teams to digitize and improve lending processes and launch new loan products
• Partner with Finance for funding strategies, loan pricing, and cost of risk management
• Collaborate with Marketing & Sales to drive loan uptake and customer engagement
• Engage with regulators, industry bodies, and external partners to strengthen credibility and market presence

Innovation & Growth

• Drive and sustain automation of the lending lifecycle (onboarding → approval → disbursement → collections)
• Manage partnerships, agent networks, and alternative distribution channels to scale reach
• Initiate and oversee continuous improvement initiatives for products and processes