We built Trade Lenda because the 30-day wait is a Nigerian SME problem.
Every week we watched importers and exporters lose deals because working capital was stuck in a bank’s LC queue. We decided to fix the underwriting bottleneck, not paper over it.
The Apapa desk problem
Trade Lenda was founded in 2024 by Adeshina Adewumi after years working in finance and trade advisory in Lagos. The pattern he kept seeing was specific: an importer's goods would arrive at Apapa, the NCS customs window to clear was tight, but the bank's LC approval was still 18 days out. The importer either paid expensive informal bridging finance or lost the shipment window. The underlying data to score that trade accurately — customs history, shipment route, buyer payment record — existed. Banks just had not built the layer to connect it. We did.
We are not a bank and we do not pretend to be. We are a specialist lender for Nigerian trade — with one product that solves one problem in one market. That focus is the point.
The data to score a trade accurately is all there — customs records, buyer history, shipment routes. Banks just have not connected it. We did.
Adeshina Adewumi, CEO & Co-Founder
How we operate
Speed without shortcuts
48-hour decisions are only worth something if they are accurate. Our model produces a structured risk summary; a human underwriter reviews every application. Speed is a product of better data, not of skipping the review.
Transparency in pricing
One facility fee, quoted up front. No origination charges added after approval, no monthly admin fees, no penalty buried in clause 14(b). The rate the AI model quotes during review is what you pay at settlement.
Built for Nigerian trade
NCS customs data, Form M requirements, Apapa and Tin Can corridor intelligence, CBN foreign exchange policy — we built for Nigerian trade specifically. Not a generic trade finance platform localised for the market.
Four people. One very specific problem.
Credit and underwriting, data engineering, compliance, and operations — the four disciplines that matter in Nigerian trade finance.