As Algorithms Decide Who Gets Credit in Nigeria, Accountability Lags Behind

A Rapidly Digitising Financial Sector

The stakes are heightened by how quickly Nigerian financial services are going digital. Citing EFInA's 2023 Access to Financial Services Survey, TechCabal reported that formal financial inclusion in Nigeria climbed to 64% in 2023, up from 54% in 2020, while overall financial inclusion reached 74%.

As more Nigerians access services through digital channels, decisions once made by human loan officers are increasingly delegated to automated systems. That transfer of responsibility, according to the analysis, brings a central question into focus: who is accountable when an algorithm reaches the wrong conclusion?

Efficiency Versus Accountability

The core argument in the TechCabal piece is that efficiency and accountability are not the same thing. Faster and cheaper processing does not, on its own, establish who bears responsibility for errors or how affected customers can seek redress. Because many of the underlying models are proprietary and opaque, the reasoning behind individual decisions may be difficult for customers, and potentially regulators, to examine.

The analysis positions this as a governance challenge that should evolve alongside the technology rather than trail behind it. As algorithmic decision-making becomes more embedded in credit assessment, customer evaluation, and complaint resolution, the publication contends that mechanisms for accountability must keep pace with the systems themselves.

The piece stops short of prescribing specific regulatory measures, instead framing the accountability gap as an emerging issue for Nigeria's fintech ecosystem to address as adoption continues to grow.