GBENGA MAGBAGBEOLA is the managing director of Sycamore Integrated Solutions. He has rich experience in capital markets, having previously held key positions at ARM Securities, FBNQuest Securities, and Profund Securities. In this interview, he speaks how the fintech industry has evolved in the Nigerian financial ecosystem, zeroing in on Sycamore, a Nigerian fintech which, just seven years ago, operated as a peer-to-peer lending platform, but today holds licences from the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the FCCPC, and manages over N20 billion in assets for more than 400,000 users. He speaks with CHUKA UROKO, Assistant Editor at BusinessDay. Excerpts:
Sycamore began as a peer-to-peer lender. What were the most critical turning points that enabled its evolution into a regulated, investment-grade financial institution?
Three moments changed the trajectory of this company. The first was the decision to become profitable early. Sycamore was cash-flow positive by its second year, which was unusual for a fintech at that stage. Some people may question the thinking, but it meant we were never dependent on the next funding round to survive. That financial discipline became the foundation for everything that followed.
The second was the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) approval. That process required the company to build compliance systems and governance structures that went well beyond what most early-stage fintechs were doing. When the Securities and Exchange Commission licensing process came later, much of the groundwork had already been laid.
The third was the decision to apply for the Securities and Exchange Commission fund manager licence and build out the asset management arm. That was the moment the company moved from being a lender that happened to use technology and became a financial institution operating across multiple regulated verticals. Each of these steps built on the one before it, and none happened by accident.
Having spent 18 years in traditional capital markets, what assumptions have you had to unlearn in the fintech space?
The biggest adjustment was around timelines. In traditional capital markets, you plan in quarters and years. Product development cycles are long, regulatory conversations move at a certain pace, and there’s an institutional patience built into how things get done. In fintech, the cycle is compressed. Customer expectations shift faster, product iterations happen in weeks, and the market penalises you for moving slowly.
Distribution was another shift. At ARM or FBNQuest, distribution meant institutional relationships, high-net-worth clients, and a network of intermediaries. At Sycamore, distribution means an optimized mobile app, a minimum of N100,000, and a user base that expects to complete a transaction in under three minutes. The rigour behind the product has to be the same, but the delivery model is completely different.
What I did not have to unlearn was the importance of the governance process. Risk management, compliance frameworks, and portfolio construction discipline; these things translate directly. If anything, they matter more in fintech because the speed of execution means mistakes or gains compound faster.
What does it take for a fintech to earn an investment-grade rating in Nigeria today?
It takes time, and there is no shortcut. Rating agencies are looking at your audited financials, your governance structures, your risk management frameworks, your track record of meeting obligations, and the quality of your management team. They are making a judgment about whether you can honour the commitments you are asking investors to fund. That judgment is based on evidence, not on your pitch deck.
For Sycamore specifically, DataPro examined several years of financial performance. Interest income grew from N115 million in 2020 to N6 billion in 2025. Profit after tax crossed N1 billion. Assets under management exceeded N20 billion. The company holds three regulatory registrations. These are the kinds of proof points that move a rating conversation forward.
The thing most fintechs underestimate is how long the institutional credibility journey takes. You cannot rush a rating agency. You have to build a track record first, then let the numbers speak.
How do you maintain startup agility while operating under the stricter frameworks of multiple regulators?
You have to accept that some things take time. Compliance, risk management, and client protection, these should never be rushed. The agility has to come from everything else: how quickly you respond to customer feedback, how fast you ship product improvements, how efficiently your technology infrastructure scales.
We operate under the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the FCCPC. Each has its own reporting requirements, examination processes, and expectations. Managing that requires dedicated compliance teams, clear internal protocols, and a culture where regulatory obligations are treated as operational priorities, not afterthoughts.
Where we maintain agility is in product design and customer experience. Our technology team can iterate on the app, test new features, and respond to market conditions much faster than a traditional bank. But every product that touches a regulatory boundary goes through a thorough review process before it reaches a single user. That balance is not always comfortable, but it is necessary.
Your recent commercial paper issuance was oversubscribed. What does that show about investor appetite for fintech-led instruments?
It signals that investors are evaluating fintechs using the same criteria they apply to any other issuer: financial performance, governance, credit quality, and the instrument’s structure. The oversubscription tells us that when a fintech meets those criteria, the institutional bias fades and the investment case stands on its own merits.
Nigeria’s commercial paper market has grown rapidly. Issuance volumes hit N143 billion in February 2026 alone, up 165 percent from January. Institutional investors are actively seeking high-quality short-term instruments and are increasingly willing to look beyond traditional issuers to find them.
What made the difference for our programme was the combination of the BBB+/A2 rating from DataPro, the strength of the audited financials, and the calibre of the transaction parties involved, starting with BAS Capital as lead arranger. Investors could evaluate the opportunity on familiar terms. The fact that the issuer is a fintech became secondary to the quality of what was on offer.
Sycamore is opening up instruments like commercial papers to individuals at relatively low entry points. How can this transform participation in retail capital markets?
The commercial paper market in Nigeria has historically been an institutional conversation. Pension funds, asset managers, and corporate treasuries were the participants. Individual investors were not excluded by regulation. They were excluded by structure: high minimums, distribution through institutional channels, and a general absence of retail-facing access points.
Our Securities and Exchange Commission investment platform licence allows us to distribute commercial papers, fixed-yield products, dollar-denominated investments, and equities directly to retail investors through our app. That means an individual with N100,000 and a smartphone can now access the same category of instrument that a pension fund uses to park short-term capital.
I want to be careful not to overstate this. Making an instrument accessible is not the same as making it appropriate for every investor. Commercial papers are unsecured, and they carry credit risk. Also, invested capital is locked for the full tenor. These are things every investor needs to understand before participating. But the mere existence of a democratised access point is a meaningful structural change in who gets to participate in Nigeria’s capital markets.
How do you balance democratising access to investments with the need to protect less sophisticated investors from risk?
This is the question that should keep every fintech CEO awake at night. The moment you make a capital market instrument available to someone who has never invested before, you take on a responsibility that goes beyond the transaction.
Our approach starts with disclosure. Every instrument on the platform provides clear information about the issuer, tenor, yield, rating, and risks. We do not bury risk disclosures in fine print. Beyond that, we have structured our investment offerings across a range of risk and return profiles because not every product is suitable for every investor. The platform is designed to help users understand what they are buying before they commit. And underlying all of this is the regulatory framework itself. We operate under the Securities and Exchange Commission’s guidelines for capital market operators, which exist specifically to protect investors.
The broader principle is simple: access without education is not inclusion. It is exposure. We take the education side seriously because the long-term health of this market depends on investors who understand what they own.
Are we witnessing the emergence of a new class of fintechs that resemble digital investment banks?
What we are seeing is a group of fintechs that have survived long enough, built strong enough balance sheets, and earned enough regulatory credibility to participate in activities that were once the exclusive territory of banks and legacy financial institutions.
Sycamore now operates a lending platform, a SEC-licensed asset management firm, and a microfinance bank. We issue rated commercial papers. We offer dollar-denominated investments. We distribute capital markets instruments to retail investors. Five years ago, that profile would have been unusual for a Nigerian fintech. Today, it reflects where the most disciplined players in the sector are heading.
I would stop short of calling Sycamore a “digital investment bank” because the regulatory categories are different and the comparison can create confusion. But the capabilities are converging. The fintechs that have done the hard work of building compliance infrastructure, earning ratings, and securing multiple licences are now operating in the same space as traditional institutions, often with better technology and lower cost structures.
What is the logic behind Sycamore’s diversification across lending, asset management, and multi-currency investments?
It follows the customer. Our lending customers told us they wanted investment options. Our naira investors told us they wanted dollar exposure. Our retail users told us they wanted access to instruments they had heard about but could never reach. Each new vertical was a response to a need that already existed in our user base.
The strategic logic is to build a financial ecosystem in which a customer does not need to leave the platform to meet their core financial needs. Borrow, invest, save, diversify across currencies, access capital markets instruments, all in one place, all under the same regulated infrastructure.
The operational logic is about revenue diversification. Lending is cyclical and sensitive to macroeconomic conditions. Asset management generates fee-based income that is more predictable. The multi-currency products serve a clear need in an economy where currency depreciation is a real concern for savers. Each vertical strengthens the others and reduces the company’s dependence on any single revenue stream.
What does Sycamore’s journey say about the future of Nigeria’s financial ecosystem? Can fintech-driven access to capital market instruments materially change how Nigerians build wealth?
Sycamore’s journey is one data point, not the whole story. But what it demonstrates is that a Nigerian fintech can start from zero, build a profitable and regulated business, earn the confidence of rating agencies and institutional investors, and open up financial instruments to people who were previously locked out. That path is now proven, and other companies will follow it.
The bigger question is whether this changes wealth-building patterns at scale. I believe it can, but the conditions have to hold. The regulatory environment needs to continue supporting responsible access. SEC’s licensing framework has been critical to enabling the retail distribution of instruments such as commercial paper, and it needs to continue evolving as the market grows.
Investor education has to keep pace with product access, because there is no point giving someone a commercial paper if they do not understand what unsecured short-term debt means or what a credit rating does and does not guarantee. And companies operating in this space must maintain discipline. One high-profile default or one case of investor harm could set back retail participation in capital markets for years.
Nigeria has over 200 million people, a young population, growing financial literacy, and an economy where inflation makes holding idle cash expensive. The conditions for broader participation in capital markets are in place. What was missing was the access infrastructure, which companies like Sycamore are now building.
