Head of Credit

Posted 14 Minutes Ago
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Lagos, Lagos Island, Lagos, NGA
In-Office
Senior level
eCommerce • Fintech • Payments • Financial Services
The Role
Leads credit strategy, underwriting, portfolio performance, risk appetite, pricing, and lending governance across consumer and business products. Owns portfolio growth, profitability, credit quality, monitoring, stress testing, fraud controls, collections partnerships, regulatory compliance, and executive reporting. Builds and develops credit, underwriting, portfolio management, and analytics teams while using data, scoring models, automation, and decision technology to support responsible lending growth.
Summary Generated by Built In

CredPal is a leading financial technology company that offers a comprehensive range of financial solutions, including credit cards and investment opportunities, to empower individuals. Our mission is to revolutionize access to credit and investment, enabling individuals to take charge of their financial well-being.


Job Title: Head of Credit


Job Type: Full Time/Hybrid


Level: Senior Level


Purpose Statement

The Head of Credit will have overall responsibility for CredPal’s credit strategy, underwriting framework, portfolio quality, risk appetite, and lending performance across consumer and business lending.


This role will balance growth, risk, customer experience, and profitability, ensuring that the company scales its lending portfolio responsibly while maintaining strong credit quality and disciplined risk management.


The successful candidate will be a commercially minded credit leader who can combine strong credit judgment, data, technology, and portfolio insights to drive sustainable lending growth.


Responsibilities

  • Credit Strategy: Define and lead CredPal’s overall credit strategy across consumer and business lending products.

  • Portfolio Ownership: Own the performance, quality, growth, and profitability of the credit portfolio, ensuring appropriate balance between risk and commercial objectives.

  • Credit Policy & Risk Appetite: Develop and continuously refine credit policies, underwriting standards, approval authorities, limits, exceptions, and risk appetite frameworks.

  • Underwriting Leadership: Oversee underwriting across consumer and business lending, ensuring consistent, data-driven, and commercially sound credit decisions.

  • Business Lending: Establish robust frameworks for assessing business borrowers, including cash flow, financial statements, repayment capacity, sector risk, concentration, and collateral or security where applicable.

  • Credit Decision: Drive the development and optimization of scorecards, decision rules, risk segmentation, credit limits, pricing, and automated decision strategies.

  • Portfolio Monitoring: Establish strong portfolio monitoring and early-warning frameworks covering delinquency, defaults, PAR, NPLs, roll rates, vintage performance, concentration, and emerging risks.

  • Risk-Based Growth: Partner with Product, Business, Sales, and Data teams to identify opportunities for responsible portfolio expansion while maintaining acceptable risk-adjusted returns.

  • Credit Pricing: Support risk-based pricing strategies that appropriately reflect borrower risk, funding costs, expected losses, and target profitability.

  • Fraud & Credit Risk: Work closely with Fraud, Risk, Data, Product, and Engineering teams to strengthen fraud detection, application controls, customer verification, and credit-loss prevention.

  • Collections & Recovery Strategy: Partner with Collections and Recovery teams to improve delinquency management, repayment outcomes, restructuring strategies, and recoveries.

  • Portfolio Analytics: Ensure strong portfolio reporting and analysis, translating credit data into clear actions and recommendations for Management.

  • Stress Testing: Lead stress testing and scenario analysis to assess the impact of economic, market, sector, and portfolio changes on credit performance.

  • Credit Governance: Chair or actively support relevant credit committees and ensure appropriate governance around major credit decisions, exceptions, and portfolio exposures.

  • Regulatory Compliance: Ensure lending activities comply with applicable regulations, consumer protection requirements, internal policies, and credit governance standards.

  • Technology & Automation: Drive the use of data, automation, alternative credit data, scoring models, and decision technology to improve credit quality and turnaround time.

  • Team Leadership: Build, lead, and develop a high-performing credit team across underwriting, portfolio management, and credit analytics.

  • Executive Reporting: Provide Management and relevant committees with clear reporting on portfolio health, credit losses, emerging risks, growth opportunities, and recommended actions.


KPIs / Success Metrics

  • Portfolio growth and risk-adjusted profitability.

  • PAR, NPL, default, and credit-loss performance.

  • Approval rate versus portfolio quality.

  • Consumer and business loan portfolio performance.

  • Vintage and roll-rate performance.

  • Reduction in avoidable credit losses and bad debt.

  • Turnaround time for credit decisions.

  • Accuracy and effectiveness of underwriting and decision models.

  • Performance of risk-based pricing and credit limits.

  • Recovery and collections outcomes on delinquent portfolios.

  • Compliance with credit policies, limits, and approval authorities.

  • Quality and effectiveness of the Credit team.



Requirements
  • Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Accounting, Business, Statistics, or a related discipline; a postgraduate degree is an advantage.

  • Minimum of 8 years of relevant experience in credit, lending, risk, portfolio management, or underwriting, with significant leadership experience.

  • Strong experience within banking, fintech, consumer lending, business lending, or financial services.

  • Demonstrable experience managing sizable credit portfolios and delivering sustainable portfolio growth.

  • Deep understanding of consumer and business credit underwriting, portfolio management, credit risk, and lending economics.

  • Strong knowledge of credit policies, risk appetite frameworks, approval authorities, risk segmentation, and portfolio controls.

  • Strong experience with business lending, including financial statement analysis, cash-flow assessment, sector analysis, repayment capacity, and exposure management.

  • Strong understanding of portfolio metrics including PAR, NPLs, roll rates, vintage analysis, expected credit losses, defaults, and recoveries.

  • Experience with credit scoring, automated decisioning, risk models, and data-driven lending strategies.

  • Strong understanding of fraud risk, concentration risk, stress testing, and early-warning systems.

  • Strong commercial and financial acumen with the ability to balance growth, risk, and profitability.

  • Strong analytical capability with proficiency in Excel and experience working with BI, SQL, or other analytical tools.

  • Strong leadership and people-management skills with experience building and developing high-performing credit teams.

  • Excellent stakeholder-management skills with the ability to work across Product, Data, Engineering, Finance, Collections, Recovery, Operations, Compliance, and Executive Management.

  • Strong communication and executive presentation skills.

  • Relevant professional qualifications such as CFA, FRM, ACA, ACCA, ICAN, or other credit/risk certifications are an advantage.


Benefits
  • Competitive compensation and performance-based incentives.

  • Hybrid work arrangement with flexibility.

  • Career growth and leadership development opportunities.

  • Opportunity to shape CredPal’s consumer and business lending strategy.

  • Exposure to high-impact fintech, credit, data, and decisioning technologies.

  • Collaborative and innovative work environment with direct access to senior leadership.

  • Opportunity to build and lead a high-performing credit function at scale.


Skills Required

  • Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Accounting, Business, Statistics, or a related discipline
  • Postgraduate degree
  • Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in credit, lending, risk, portfolio management, or underwriting
  • Significant leadership experience
  • Experience in banking, fintech, consumer lending, business lending, or financial services
  • Experience managing sizable credit portfolios and delivering sustainable portfolio growth
  • Deep understanding of consumer and business credit underwriting, portfolio management, credit risk, and lending economics
  • Knowledge of credit policies, risk appetite frameworks, approval authorities, risk segmentation, and portfolio controls
  • Experience with business lending, including financial statement analysis, cash-flow assessment, sector analysis, repayment capacity, and exposure management
  • Understanding of portfolio metrics including PAR, NPLs, roll rates, vintage analysis, expected credit losses, defaults, and recoveries
  • Experience with credit scoring, automated decisioning, risk models, and data-driven lending strategies
  • Understanding of fraud risk, concentration risk, stress testing, and early-warning systems
  • Strong commercial and financial acumen
  • Strong analytical capability with proficiency in Excel and experience working with BI, SQL, or other analytical tools
  • Leadership and people-management skills, including experience building and developing high-performing credit teams
  • Stakeholder-management skills across Product, Data, Engineering, Finance, Collections, Recovery, Operations, Compliance, and Executive Management
  • Strong communication and executive presentation skills
  • CFA, FRM, ACA, ACCA, ICAN, or other credit or risk certifications
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The Company

What We Do

CredPal is a fintech company based in Lagos, Nigeria, that provides buy now, pay later (BNPL) solutions for consumers and businesses across Africa. It integrates payments, savings, credit, and investments into one powerful platform, empowering individuals to achieve their financial goals and offering seamless credit access.

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