Moniepoint Inc., one of Nigeria’s leading financial technology companies, is seeking a Senior Credit Underwriter to join its banking team in Lagos. This is a role designed for seasoned finance professionals who understand the intricacies of large-scale lending and want to play a hands-on part in shaping how one of the country’s most prominent fintech players manages credit risk across its SME, mid-corporate, and large-corporate portfolios.
A Role at the Center of Strategic Lending Decisions
The position sits squarely within Moniepoint’s banking operations, with the Senior Credit Underwriter responsible for underwriting all SME, mid-corporate, and large-corporate lending applications that require manual underwriting within the industry sector. This isn’t a role focused on routine, automated approvals; it’s about applying genuine expertise and judgment to complex lending decisions that carry significant financial weight.
Beyond underwriting individual applications, the role carries a broader mandate: ensuring that lending remains within the company’s risk appetite and that performance stays within agreed target loan loss levels. This requires the Senior Credit Underwriter to work closely with the Head of Credit Risk Analytics and the Chief Risk Officer to continually assess and define lending thresholds and parameters, striking a careful balance between sound risk management and supporting the business’s broader growth objectives. Reporting directly to the Head of Credit Risk Analytics, the role is positioned at a meaningful intersection of risk oversight and strategic business support.
What the Job Actually Involves
The responsibilities tied to this role reflect the depth of expertise Moniepoint expects from its Senior Credit Underwriter. At the core of the position is the education and adoption of best practices in credit analysis, underwriting, and monitoring. This spans the entire underwriting lifecycle, starting from early lending discussions with Sales teams through to the development of detailed credit approval memos for senior management or risk committee approval forums.
A significant part of the job involves detailed review and due diligence of lending applications. This includes thorough financial analysis, business projection modelling, viability assessments, and stress testing, along with whatever other in-depth analysis is needed to support the sanctioning of large-ticket loans. Given that the role involves underwriting loans of up to 5 billion Naira, this level of rigor isn’t optional; it’s central to the integrity of the entire lending process.
The Senior Credit Underwriter will also be responsible for the ongoing monitoring and portfolio health of their assigned sector, conducting regular credit reviews and ad-hoc deep-dives to continually assess how the portfolio is performing over time. This monitoring function ties directly into the role’s broader mission of driving positive change in the maturity of Moniepoint’s underwriting framework and strategy, ensuring that the company’s approach to credit risk evolves alongside its growth.
Collaboration runs throughout the position as well. The role requires continual interaction with a broad range of functions and stakeholders to help drive credit risk maturity across the business, alongside facilitating risk initiatives and pilots by reviewing relevant credit data. The Senior Credit Underwriter will also conduct periodic reviews of individual bad debts, ensuring that lessons from underperforming loans feed back into improved underwriting practices going forward.
Notably, the role extends well beyond pure risk management. The listing emphasizes that the Senior Credit Underwriter will work closely with Sales, Product, and Data Engineering teams to support new strategic product initiatives aimed at driving the company’s growth objectives. This cross-functional dimension highlights how integral the role is to Moniepoint’s broader business strategy, not just its risk function.
What Moniepoint Is Looking For
The requirements for this role reflect just how senior and specialized the position truly is. Candidates must bring significant experience underwriting SME and large-corporate loans, with this experience ideally gained at a leading financial institution within Nigeria and primarily within the financial industry sector. This is listed as a must-have requirement, underscoring how important sector-specific expertise is to the role.
Equally essential is high-level experience with the end-to-end underwriting process for large-ticket loans of up to 5 billion Naira. Candidates should be experts in the financial assessment of SME and large corporates, drawing on a broad range of data sources such as financial statements, audited accounts, and bank statements. The role also demands a deep understanding of the headwinds and opportunities within the relevant industry sector, including detailed knowledge of the macroeconomic and regulatory factors that shape lending decisions in that space.
Experience assessing collateral and covenants to mitigate risk across both secured and unsecured lending is another key requirement, as is a strong awareness of compliance and the regulatory environment within Nigeria’s financial industry. Above all, candidates should be able to demonstrate clear experience with underwriting best practices and standards, reflecting the seniority and trust placed in this position.
Skills That Set Strong Candidates Apart
Beyond the technical underwriting expertise, Moniepoint has outlined a set of relevant skills that will help candidates succeed in this role. Significant expertise underwriting large-ticket SME and large-corporate loans of up to 5 billion Naira within Nigeria’s industry sector is described as essential, alongside diligence and strong attention to detail given the financial stakes involved in each decision.
The company is also looking for someone who is data-driven and a logical thinker, with strong analytical skills that support sound, evidence-based decision-making. Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, are necessary given how often the role requires presenting complex credit assessments to senior management and risk committees. The ability to work autonomously is highlighted as well, reflecting the level of trust and independent judgment expected at this seniority level, alongside an ability to apply an analytical approach to problem-solving more broadly.
Finally, Moniepoint emphasizes the importance of being a strong team player, given how much cross-functional collaboration the role demands, along with high ethical and professional standards, a critical trait for anyone entrusted with decisions involving billions of Naira in lending exposure.
Why This Role Matters
For experienced credit and risk professionals in Nigeria’s financial sector, this Senior Credit Underwriter position at Moniepoint Inc. offers a rare opportunity to operate at the highest levels of credit decision-making within one of the country’s most dynamic fintech companies. The role combines deep technical underwriting expertise with genuine strategic influence, giving successful candidates the chance to shape how Moniepoint balances risk management with ambitious growth goals. For seasoned underwriters looking to apply their expertise at scale, within an organization that’s actively reshaping financial access in Nigeria, this position represents a compelling next step in an already established career.