Vale is getting more Nigerians to use its platform for everyday finance

Vale Finance has grown into a much bigger business than the savings and investment platform it started with. The Nigerian fintech says customer placements have grown from ₦100 million in 2022 to more than ₦10 billion in 2026. At the same time, transaction value on the platform has gone from ₦15 billion in 2022 to ₦790 billion by July 2026. Vale says the total value of transactions since it launched is now approaching ₦1 trillion. The numbers are significant, but what stands out is how the company has expanded its services around them.

Vale has moved beyond savings

Savings and investments were the starting point for Vale. The company has since added lending and business banking, giving customers more reasons to use the platform. Vale says it now has more than 150,000 customers and has disbursed about ₦100 billion in loans. Its lending products include working capital, asset financing and LPO financing.

The company says businesses in logistics, agribusiness, energy, oil and gas and supply chains have used its financing. For a small business, that money can go towards fairly basic needs. It can help pay suppliers, buy equipment, fulfil an order or cover expenses while waiting for customers to pay. That is the gap Vale is trying to address with its business banking offering.

The ₦790 billion figure needs some context

Vale’s transaction value has increased from ₦15 billion in 2022 to ₦790 billion by July 2026. That is a substantial increase in the amount of money moving through the platform. But transaction value is not revenue. The ₦790 billion represents the value of transactions taking place through Vale. It does not mean the company earned that amount. What the number does show is that customers are using the platform far more than they were four years ago. That matters because there is a big difference between getting customers to sign up for a fintech app and getting them to actually use it.

Vale says it grew without venture capital

Vale says it has achieved this growth without venture capital funding. That is notable given how much of Nigeria’s fintech growth over the past few years was tied to large funding rounds. The funding environment has changed. Investors are more careful about where they put their money, while some fintechs that raised large amounts have struggled to keep growing or have shut down. Vale says it took a different approach, growing the business without relying on venture capital. That does not mean the company has avoided the cost of running a financial services business. It still has to pay for technology, employees, customer support, lending operations and infrastructure. It simply says it has built the business without using venture funding to finance that expansion.

Vale’s move into lending also changes the risk involved in the business. The company says it has disbursed around ₦100 billion in loans. That means managing repayments becomes increasingly important as the business grows. Vale has products for working capital, asset financing and LPO financing, with businesses across several sectors using them. The opportunity is clear, but so is the risk. A bigger loan book can bring more customers and income, but it also means more exposure when borrowers struggle to repay. That will become increasingly important as Vale expands its business banking operation.

The next target is ₦200 billion

Vale wants to reach ₦200 billion in customer placements by the end of 2030. That is a big jump from the more than ₦10 billion it reports today. To get there, Vale will need to keep existing customers using its products while bringing more people and businesses onto the platform. The business banking offering gives it another market to work with, particularly among SMEs that need working capital and other forms of financing.

But growth also brings more pressure. More customers mean more transactions to handle. More lending means more credit risk. More financial products mean more systems and operations to manage. Vale is approaching its fifth anniversary with a much larger business than the one it started with. The ₦1 trillion transaction figure is the headline number. The more important question is whether Vale can keep growing while managing the costs and risks that come with becoming a bigger financial services business.