How Creditlinker works

Creditlinker helps Nigerian businesses build a verified financial identity from their real banking activity, then use that identity to access capital. This guide explains what that means for you, how your data is used, and what rights you have at every step.

Who is Creditlinker for?

Creditlinker is built for small and medium-sized businesses in Nigeria that struggle to access capital because they lack a formal credit history, not because their finances aren't healthy.

Traditional lenders rely on credit bureau scores, which many businesses either don't have or haven't had enough time to build. Creditlinker fills that gap by creating a financial identity from the real evidence of how your business operates: your transactions, your cash flow, your payment patterns.

How it works: the big picture

From connecting your bank to receiving a financing offer, here's the full journey.

What is a financial profile?

Your financial profile is a structured, verified summary of your business's financial health, built entirely from your real banking activity. It is not a credit score in the traditional sense. It's a richer picture: six distinct dimensions of how your business manages money, how consistent your income is, and how disciplined your spending has been.

Think of it as your business's financial CV. It exists in our system, belongs to you, and is shared with lenders only on your terms.

The 6 financial health dimensions

Your profile is scored across six independent dimensions. Each one is evaluated separately. No single number hides the full picture. Lenders can see all six and weight them based on what they care about.

Each dimension is scored from 0 to 100. A score of 80+ is considered strong. Lenders can see exactly where your strengths lie and which dimensions matter most for the type of financing you're seeking.

Profile quality

Alongside your six dimension scores, every profile carries a data quality indicator, a signal to lenders about how much financial data underpins the profile. More data, from more accounts, over a longer period, means a higher quality score.

When does your profile update?

Your profile is not static. It rebuilds automatically whenever new financial data arrives, for example when your bank account syncs or when you upload a new bank statement. You can also trigger a manual refresh from your dashboard at any time.

• Profile rebuilds automatically when new bank data is synced
• Each rebuild creates a versioned snapshot; your history is preserved
• Lenders who have active access are notified when your profile changes
• The timestamp of the most recent rebuild is always visible on your profile

This means your profile gets stronger over time, simply by continuing to run your business normally.

What data we use

Everything in your financial profile comes from your bank transactions. We look at the flow of money in and out of your business accounts, not your personal life, not your social media, not your phone activity.

Specifically, we analyze:

• Transaction dates, amounts, and directions (money in vs. money out)
• Transaction descriptions and counterparty names (who you pay and who pays you)
• Account balances over time
• Patterns in timing, regularity, and volume of transactions

We do not use your personal credit score, your tax records, your social media, or any data outside of what you explicitly connect.

Connecting your bank

The recommended way to share your financial data is through Mono Open Banking, a secure, bank-authorized connection. When you connect your bank through Creditlinker, you log in directly with your bank (we never see your banking credentials) and authorize us to read your transaction history.

Uploading bank statements

If your bank isn't supported by Mono, or you prefer not to use a live connection, you can upload your bank statements directly. We accept PDF statements from all major Nigerian banks, and CSV exports from internet banking portals.

• PDF statements are parsed automatically with no manual data entry required
• CSV files from any bank that allows transaction exports are supported
• Password-protected PDFs are accepted; you enter the password, we process it securely
• You can upload statements from multiple accounts to build a fuller picture

What we don't collect

We believe in collecting the minimum necessary to do our job well. The following are explicitly out of scope:

• Your personal credit bureau score or any bureau records
• Your tax filings or FIRS records
• Your personal bank accounts (only business accounts)
• Your phone contacts, SMS messages, or app usage data
• Social media profiles or online presence
• Location data of any kind

If something isn't listed above under what we do use, we don't use it.

What lenders can see

Lenders on Creditlinker can only ever see what you've explicitly permitted them to see. There are three levels of access, and you control which level each lender receives:

How lenders find you

You are never visible to lenders by default. You have to opt in to discovery, a setting in your dashboard that signals you're open to financing. Once you opt in, lenders can see that a business matching your general profile exists, but they see no identifying information.

The anonymized match includes things like: roughly what size your monthly revenue is, which financing categories your profile qualifies for, and your data quality tier. Nothing more.

If a lender thinks you might be a good fit, they send you a formal access request. You review it: who they are, exactly what they're asking to see, and for how long. Then you decide.

The evaluation process

Once you grant a lender access, here's what they do with your profile:

How consent works

Consent is the mechanism through which any lender gains access to your profile data. Without an active consent grant from you, no lender can see anything beyond an anonymized match signal. This is not optional; it is how the system works.

Every consent grant has three properties you control:

Granting access

When a lender sends you a request, you'll receive a notification in your dashboard. The request shows you:

• The lender's full name and a brief description of who they are
• Exactly what permission level they're requesting (score, profile, or transactions)
• How long they're asking for access
• Any specific note they've added explaining what they'll use it for

You can approve the request as-is, approve it with a shorter duration, or decline entirely. No reason needed. A declined request is final; the lender cannot reapply for the same profile automatically.

Revoking access

You can revoke any active consent grant at any time from your dashboard. Revocation is immediate. The lender loses access the moment you confirm. They are notified that access has been revoked, but not told why.

Any data they downloaded or viewed before revocation remains subject to the terms they agreed to when requesting access. Revocation prevents any future access, not past views.

Permission levels in plain language

Here's what each permission level actually means for what a lender can do:

Viewing your access history

Your dashboard shows a complete log of every time a lender accessed your profile: what they viewed and when. This log is immutable; it cannot be edited or deleted, by you or by anyone else.

• See every lender who has ever had or currently has access to your profile
• See exactly what actions they took (viewed scores, viewed profile, viewed transactions)
• See precise timestamps for each access event
• Download your full access history at any time

If you ever see access you don't recognize or didn't authorize, contact us immediately at support@creditlinker.io.

How we protect your data

Your financial data is among the most sensitive information that exists. We handle it carefully.

• All data is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.3, the same standard used by major banks
• All stored data is encrypted at rest using AES-256 encryption
• Sensitive fields like account numbers and business owner names are encrypted separately at the field level
• Your bank account number is never shown in full; it's always masked (e.g. ****1234)
• Our infrastructure is hosted on ISO 27001-certified cloud infrastructure
• Access to your data by Creditlinker staff requires multi-factor authentication and is fully logged

We never sell your data

Creditlinker does not sell, rent, or trade your financial data to any third party for any purpose. The only parties who ever see your data are lenders you have explicitly consented to, and Creditlinker's own systems in the process of building your profile.

Your privacy rights

As a Creditlinker user, you have the following rights over your data at all times:

• Right to access: you can request a full export of all data we hold about you
• Right to correction: if any information in your profile is incorrect, you can flag it for review
• Right to deletion: you can request that your account and all associated data be permanently deleted
• Right to portability: your financial data export is yours. Take it anywhere.
• Right to revoke consent: you can withdraw any lender's access at any time, instantly

To exercise any of these rights, visit the Privacy section of your dashboard or contact privacy@creditlinker.io.

Data retention

We keep your financial data for as long as your account is active. If you close your account, we delete all your financial data within 30 days. Access logs are retained for 7 years to meet regulatory obligations, but are not shared with any third party after your account is closed.

If you disconnect a bank account or delete a statement, that data is removed from your active profile on the next rebuild. Historical snapshots that were built with that data are archived but remain accessible to lenders who had active consent at the time they were created.

About your profile

About lenders

About your data