Oxygen X Brings Digital Loans to Nigerian Market Traders
NIGERIA · FINTECH
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Key Facts
- —What happened Oxygen X, the digital lending subsidiary of Access Holdings, sent field agents into Balogun and Trade Fair markets in Lagos to onboard traders for instant credit where they work.
- —How big The lender said it had disbursed over ₦3.5 billion (about US$2.6 million) to roughly 4,000 active customers in 2025, up from ₦152 million (about US$114,000) in its 2024 debut year.
- —The model Built on Access Bank’s old Quickbucks platform, Oxygen X is described by TechCabal as the first standalone digital lending company from a major Nigerian banking group — and it turned a profit in its first year.
- —Why it matters Nigeria’s credit penetration sits at an estimated 6–7 percent, while informal businesses drive over half of GDP — the gap Access Holdings wants to own.
- —What comes next New chief executive Abiodun Adigun, appointed in June 2026, must prove street-level onboarding converts into a durable, well-performing loan book.
Access Holdings’ digital lender is bypassing the bank branch entirely — signing up market traders on the spot in Lagos as it chases Nigeria’s vast informal credit gap.
Oxygen X loans are going where Nigerian banking rarely goes: directly into the market. The digital lending subsidiary of Access Holdings sent field agents into Balogun Market and the Trade Fair Market complex in Lagos from 9 to 12 December 2025, onboarding traders for instant credit on site rather than waiting for them to find a branch.
The four-day roadshow put agents on the ground for real-time registration, walking merchants through digital credit applications and repayment terms, the company said in an activation reported by Octagon News. “We believe credit should be accessible where commerce happens,” said Oyebimpe Adeniyi-Sanusi, Oxygen X’s head of sales. “By bringing capital directly to traders, we are enabling business growth while building a responsible and sustainable lending culture.”
From Approval to the Street
Access Holdings received the Central Bank of Nigeria’s approval-in-principle to establish Oxygen X Finance Company Limited on 17 January 2024, disclosing the move in a regulatory filing to the Nigerian Exchange and a group press release. The lender began operating in early 2024 — TechCabal describes Access Holdings as the first major Nigerian bank group to launch a standalone digital lending company.
The venture was not built from scratch. Oxygen X sits on the backbone of Quickbucks, Access Bank’s earlier digital lending platform, which served around seven million users, according to TechCabal. The new company targets individual consumers and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises with personal loans, payday advances, car loans, and solar and device financing — competing with fintech lenders such as Carbon and OPay.
The Numbers So Far
The first year was modest but profitable. Oxygen X disbursed ₦152 million (about US$114,000) in consumer loans in 2024 to a base of just 1,211 users, yet still posted ₦805 million (about US$606,000) in pre-tax profit on ₦4.1 billion (about US$3.1 million) in revenue, according to an Access Holdings investor presentation reported by TechCabal.
Growth then accelerated sharply. By August 2025 the company said it had disbursed more than ₦3.5 billion (about US$2.6 million) in consumer loans during the year to roughly 4,000 active customers — more than twenty times its 2024 volume — according to coverage by TechCabal and Techpoint Africa.
Part of that push is asset financing under a “Pay Small Small” instalment model, with partners including HPZ Thermocool for electronics, Zoome Energy for electric vehicles and batteries, VGL Energy for solar products and Intelligra for device financing — credit tied to tools that help traders earn.
Why the Market Stall Matters
The target market is vast and underserved: Nigeria’s credit penetration is estimated at just 6–7 percent even though informal businesses drive more than half of GDP, as the company noted in its roadshow campaign. Textile, electronics and household-goods traders typically fund inventory from personal savings, supplier credit or informal moneylenders with opaque terms. A formal, app-based alternative — underwritten on transaction data rather than payslips and audited accounts — is the gap Oxygen X is built to fill.
For Access Holdings, the strategic prize is bigger than interest income. Traders who borrow through Oxygen X are potential deposit, payments and insurance customers across the group’s ecosystem, which includes payments subsidiary Hydrogen. Owning that relationship early, before rival fintechs do, is the point of the street-level model.
New Leadership and a Trust Pitch
In January 2026 Oxygen X announced dual ISO certifications — ISO 27001:2022 for information security and ISO 22301:2019 for business continuity — a trust signal aimed at customers wary of digital lenders, The Guardian reported. “Trust is the foundation of our platform,” then-acting chief executive Daniel Watts said.
Four months later Access Holdings installed a permanent boss: Abiodun Adigun, a former country sales head and chief marketing officer at Credit Direct Finance Company, was appointed managing director and CEO in a June 2026 filing to the Nigerian Exchange, Nairametrics reported. Chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede said the appointment would help Oxygen X “capture emerging market opportunities” as competition intensifies.
What to Watch
The open question is repayment. Loan books built on informal traders can sour quickly if underwriting is loose, and Oxygen X has yet to publish non-performing loan data. Expansion beyond Balogun and Trade Fair into other Lagos hubs — and eventually other Nigerian cities — will test whether the agent model scales.
Regulation is the second watchpoint. As digital lenders grow, the Central Bank of Nigeria is expected to tighten rules on pricing, data use and collections. For now, Access Holdings holds an early-mover edge among Nigeria’s banking groups — and a lender that was profitable before it was famous.
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This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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