Omolabake Fasogbon
The 12 months 2025 has taught totally different monetary tales to Nigerians and traders alike. For some, it delivered enterprise progress, wealth creation and a way of fulfilment.
For a lot of others, it introduced disagreeable realities, amplified by financial turbulence that strained family budgets, pushing additional people and companies deeper into unhealthy debt.
But, even amid these pressures, the 12 months additionally produced tales of resilience. Past the narratives of economic pressure, tales emerged of daring traders whose high-stakes debt propelled mega prosperity, rewriting unhealthy narratives about borrowing as being a monetary entrapment.
One such instance is Ejike, a Lagos-based tailor whose story underscores how deliberate use of finance can alter outcomes. Working initially inside Nigeria’s casual economic system, whereas navigating mortgage complexities and capital constraints, Ejike’s turning level got here when structured funding, mixed with monetary coaching, enabled him to put money into productive gear. That shift moved his enterprise from survival to enlargement, creating jobs and new income streams.
Tales of individuals like Aliko Dangote and Henry Fajemirokun are nice inspirations that present what is feasible. Nonetheless, the story of the Founder and CEO of Payaza, Seyi Ebenezer, stays a contemporary instance that stood out in 2025. His journey reveals a transparent path and a powerful, resilient solution to deal with loans and construct a enterprise.
In September 2025, Payaza introduced a compensation of N20.3 billion in business paper obligations, funds raised earlier within the 12 months by means of Collection 1 and Collection 2 of its N50 billion Industrial Paper Programme.
The compensation, he mentioned, was accomplished in full and forward of schedule, with the corporate not resorting to new fairness or refinancing. As a substitute, he funded it by means of internally generated money stream, a sign of disciplined monetary administration.
For Ebenezer, the compensation went past settling obligations to traders. It strengthened the corporate’s credibility in Nigeria’s debt market and earned its investment-grade credit standing upgrades from a number of companies, reflecting improved monetary resilience and governance requirements.
The Payaza story mirrors a broader actuality highlighted by improvement and monetary establishments. In a number of reviews, together with its personal sector updates, the World Financial institution has famous that entry to well-structured credit score, supported by robust governance and cash-flow self-discipline, stays a key driver of enterprise progress in rising economies like Nigeria. Debt, the establishment argued, turns into dangerous solely when it’s misaligned with revenue era and long-term planning.
This concept was additionally shared by Nigerian monetary agency, Opticum Finance, which labeled borrowing in two kinds. Damaging borrowing, the agency defined, sometimes funds life past one’s means, typically by means of high-interest client loans tied to depreciating belongings and with out a clear compensation plan.
Strategic borrowing, however, is channeled into income-generating belongings, enterprise enlargement with measurable returns, or schooling and abilities that improve incomes capability.
The lesson from 2025 is subsequently that debt shouldn’t be fully averted, however that it have to be approached with readability and self-discipline. Consultants aver that credit score itself is neither good nor unhealthy. What issues is how it’s structured, managed, and repaid. For people and small enterprise homeowners, understanding this distinction can decide whether or not debt turns into a entice or a device.
As Nigerians stay up for 2026, monetary consultants counsel a rethinking about borrowing to be considered strategically reasonably than emotionally, explored solely the place there’s a clear compensation plan and sensible returns.
They identified additional that belief in itself is a type of wealth. Being dependable with lenders and companions is believed to assist construct a fame that may open a lot greater doorways for debtors sooner or later.
