Building a coordinated pathway from enterprise assessment to growth capital
Nigeria’s micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) sustain livelihoods, create jobs and contribute nearly half of national GDP. Yet most remain underserved by traditional finance. A 2025 World Bank assessment estimated that Nigeria has 39.7 million MSMEs, of which only 4% have access to credit; together they receive about 1% of banking-sector loans1.The misalignment between how financial institutions assess risk, determine bankability and evaluate investability, and how microenterprises actually operate, continues to limit access to capital for otherwise viable MSMEs.
The OKOBI Growth Platform, developed in collaboration with Africa Business Affairs, InnoPower Africa, and Calpe Labs, is testing a coordinated approach to enterprise development and financing. Rather than requiring enterprises to navigate disconnected providers and satisfy investment-readiness criteria independently, OKOBI seeks to establish a coordinated pathway through which businesses are assessed, strengthened, financed, and managed.
Phase 1, undertaken in Imo State Nigeria with Evatech.Global, an AI-powered credit assessment fintech firm, focuses on enterprise assessment and financial visibility. Early program reporting indicates that 50% of assessed businesses met OKOBI’s capital-eligibility criteria. This brief explains what was tested, why the result matters and what the next stages will need to establish.
Across Nigeria and other African markets, financial technology providers, business-support program and capital providers often address different parts of the same enterprise challenge. A fintech provider may assess credit risk; an accelerator may strengthen operations; a lender or fund may provide capital; and another institution may monitor performance. Enterprises are left to navigate the handoffs between these services. Program that select businesses already closest to investment readiness can leave others with viable commercial activity outside the financing pipeline.
Financial records are one part of the problem. Many microenterprises have limited bookkeeping, fragmented transaction histories and weak operational systems. As a result, lenders struggle to assess cash flows and repayment capacity at a viable cost. Research has long shown how this information asymmetry and the design of lending technologies shape access to finance (Stiglitz & Weiss, 1981; Berger & Udell, 2006; Beck & Cull, 2014). Increasing visibility of transaction data can improve credit assessment for some micro and small enterprises2
For OKOBI, the practical question is what happens when enterprise assessment, capacity building, financing and performance oversight are designed to work together.
OKOBI brings five complementary functions into a single coordinated program. Specialized partners deliver their respective capabilities within a common operating model:
Assess financial activity, commercial viability and financing needs through specialist technology partners.
Build management capacity through bookkeeping, financial systems and practical operational support.
Structure and deploy financing aligned with enterprise cash flows, including pooled revenue-based and equity-like instruments.
Connect businesses to customers, buyers and opportunities in local and regional value chains.
Track enterprise results, investment performance and development outcomes through a common digital reporting system.
The first phase tested how to produce meaningful financial assessments for MSMEs whose commercial activity could be better documented through everyday operations than through formal financial statements. The practical challenge was to identify which observable indicators could help establish business performance, financing needs and initial eligibility for capital.
Evatech brought a distinctive methodology to this work. Its risk-assessment technology draws on operational evidence, such as business equipment, production or sales activity, customers and operating costs, rather than depending primarily on conventional financial statements. Evatech's framework uses sector-specific questionnaires and checks the consistency of responses against comparable business profiles and local conditions. Its published methodology covers more than 2,500 types of business activity. This is relevant in agribusiness and other sectors where formal accounts can give an incomplete picture of day-to-day enterprise activity.
Drawing on experience across different markets and regulatory settings, the partners developed the assessment workflow, field procedures, underwriting approach, indicative repayment structures and working documentation. The Platform combined technology with the practical operations of making assessment usable for the Imo State pilot.
The field experience provided an early test of that approach. Participating entrepreneurs were able to complete the diagnostic process and provide information deemed useful for assessment. The reported quality of submissions was stronger than initial implementation expectations. Of the enterprises assessed, 50% met OKOBI's capital-eligibility criteria and identified for further financing consideration. The result suggests a potentially meaningful pipeline for continued assessment and support. Further validation will establish how these assessments compare with conventional underwriting and whether they translate into financing and satisfactory repayment performance.
The first lesson is operational. Financial visibility can be developed through a deliberate process of collecting, interpreting and validating enterprise information. The strong quality of submissions reported in Imo State suggests that entrepreneurs can produce useful information through assessment processes designed for their operating realities.
The second lesson examines the integrated program design. Assessment alone identifies a potential financing pipeline. Enterprises may still need bookkeeping, pricing support, market access and working capital before financing becomes commercially viable. OKOBI is designed to connect these steps rather than treat each as a separate intervention.
The third lesson concerns underwriting validation. The significance of the 50% eligibility finding will become clearer as enterprises progress through financing and their subsequent performance is evaluated. Comparing OKOBI's assessments with conventional underwriting criteria will help establish whether the approach can identify viable businesses that traditional financing models might otherwise overlook.
The next phase will test the platform’s integrated operating model, combining shared business services, flexible growth capital, market access, and portfolio management. This includes pooled financing through revenue-based or equity-like instruments, supported by embedded business management services and digital performance tracking.
Building on the initial pilot, OKOBI is pursuing expansion to 1,000 microenterprises, creating a larger portfolio to test the model across different enterprises and agricultural value chains, while developing the institutional and capital partnerships needed for replication in other Nigerian markets. The evaluation will track progression from assessment to financing, capital deployment, cost per enterprise, repayment and portfolio performance, and changes in enterprise revenue, employment, and resilience. These findings will inform the model's commercial viability, operational efficiency, and potential for scale.
The broader question is whether an integrated enterprise development and investment platform can reduce the institutional fragmentation, transaction costs, and information constraints that limit financing for African microenterprises. The next stage presents an opportunity to build and validate a scalable growth platform with measurable financial and developmental outcomes.
Program observations are drawn from Calpe Labs’ September 2026 account of the initial assessment conducted by Evatech. The 50% figure reflects program-defined eligibility among initial pilot of 20 assessed agribusinesses. The public account does not provide independently validated credit outcomes or subsequent capital disbursements.