Head of Credit at CredPal Limited

Credpal is an innovative solution that seeks to combat the ever complex loan approval process that has deterred millions from achieving specific goals over the years. We believe quality of life can be drastically improved if individuals can easily make purchases and pay overtime at their convenience with reduced or no financial pressure, while also increasing their purchasing capabilities.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Head of Credit

Location: Yaba, Lagos
Job Type: Full Time/Hybrid
Level: Senior Level

Purpose Statement

• We are seeking a commercially aggressive Head of Credit to own end-to-end business credit disbursement across CredPal’s SME and merchant portfolio.
• This role requires a hands-on leader who drives merchant acquisition, activates new borrowers daily, builds high-velocity credit pipelines, and consistently delivers ₦1B+ monthly disbursements.
• You will lead growth across working capital loans, merchant financing, invoice financing, credit lines, and embedded credit products, with full accountability for volume, quality, and collections.
• The ideal candidate has 5+ years of SME or business credit leadership experience, a proven track record of exceeding targets, strong merchant networks, and relentless execution discipline.

Responsibilities
Disbursement Ownership:

• Deliver monthly business credit disbursement targets across all business credit products including working capital loans, merchant financing, invoice financing, and credit lines.
• Track disbursement performance daily and take immediate corrective action to close gaps.
• Own pipeline conversion from lead → approval → disbursement → repeat drawdown.
• Business Channel Activation
• Identify, develop, and scale high-converting business acquisition channels including direct sales, merchant partnerships, platforms, aggregators, and embedded credit flows.
• Personally engage and activate high-value merchants, distributors, and enterprise partners when required.

Lead Generation & Conversion:

• Build and execute end-to-end lead generation strategies for SME and merchant borrowers.
• Optimize onboarding, credit approval, and drawdown conversion funnels using data, field insights, and customer behavior.
• Drive high approval-to-disbursement conversion rates.

Merchant Engagement & Acquisition:

• Identify high-quality merchant clusters, trade groups, and business networks for onboarding into CredPal’s business credit ecosystem.
• Drive strong merchant activation, utilization, and repeat borrowing behavior.

Portfolio Quality & Repayment:

• Ensure credit is disbursed to creditworthy businesses through disciplined screening, segmentation, and behavioral monitoring.
• Monitor repayment performance, delinquency trends, and PAR closely.
• Partner cross-functionally to execute proactive delinquency prevention and recovery strategies.

Data-Driven Execution:

• Maintain and analyze dashboards covering disbursement volume, active borrowers, utilization rates, repayment behavior, and risk metrics.
• Use insights to drive tactical field interventions, channel optimization, and growth prioritization.

Market Intelligence:

• Stay deeply informed on SME lending trends, competitor activity, pricing models, and borrower behavior.
• Continuously refine acquisition strategies and product positioning based on market signals.

Cross-Functional Coordination:

• Work closely with credit risk, operations, marketing, partnerships, and product teams to ensure seamless execution across the credit lifecycle.
• Ensure alignment between credit policy, commercial objectives, and operational capacity.

Reporting & Forecasting:

• Deliver regular executive performance reports with actionable insights.
• Own accurate forecasting of monthly disbursement, pipeline velocity, and collections performance.

KPIs / Success Metrics

• Monthly Business Credit Disbursement Volume
• Number of Active Disbursed Business Accounts
• Daily / Weekly Disbursement per Channel
• Lead Conversion Rate (Onboarding → Disbursed)
• Portfolio at Risk (PAR) below benchmark
• Credit Repayment Collection Rate
• Pipeline Velocity & Conversion
• Repeat Borrowing Rate
• Average Ticket Size Growth
• Sales Productivity

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or a related field (MBA or relevant professional certifications are an advantage).
• Minimum of 5 – 8 years’ experience in SME lending, business credit, merchant financing, or commercial banking, with at least 3 years in a leadership role.
• Proven track record of driving high-volume business credit disbursements, consistently meeting or exceeding aggressive monthly targets (₦1B+ preferred).
• Experience within a fintech, microfinance, or high-growth lending environment is strongly preferred.
• Deep hands-on experience across working capital loans, merchant financing, invoice financing, credit lines, and embedded credit products.
• Strong merchant and SME networks, with demonstrated ability to activate and scale acquisition channels.
• Solid understanding of credit risk assessment, portfolio management, collections, and delinquency control within SME lending.
• Highly execution-focused leader with the ability to drive field activity personally, pipeline conversion, and merchant activation.
• Strong analytical skills with experience using dashboards, KPIs, and data insights to drive decision-making and performance optimization.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to work cross-functionally across Risk, Product, Operations, Partnerships, and Marketing.
• High level of commercial acumen, accountability, and ownership mindset.

Application Closing Date
Not Specified.