Head of Credit at CredPal

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.
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• 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.