Nigerian consumer credit and payments company CredPal has expanded its ecosystem with the debut of Atom, a hybrid investment solution. The platform grants users exposure to domestic shares, American equities, and over 300 digital tokens, while offering the option to borrow local currency against their portfolio instead of liquidating their positions.
Atom combines zero-minimum trading with artificial intelligence-powered analytics and portfolio-backed credit. Aimed at retail market participants through Atom Retail, the service provides real-time market data alongside customized portfolio insights to help investors monitor and optimize their holdings.
A central feature of the platform is its credit mechanism: eligible users can pledge their assets as security to obtain immediate naira liquidity or margin facilities. This structure is intended to help investors handle unexpected emergencies, school tuition, or commercial obligations without giving up their long-term holdings.
Atom Chief Executive Officer Fehintolu Olaogun noted that the product was directly inspired by the company’s nine-year tenure in the credit industry, during which borrowers frequently had to part with valuable assets to resolve immediate cash shortfalls. He stated that the platform was designed to empower individuals to expand their wealth rather than divest out of necessity.
Alongside its direct-to-consumer arm, the fintech is introducing Atom Business to provide white-label tools and APIs to external financial players. This business-to-business layer enables commercial lenders, digital banks, brokerage firms, and asset managers to seamlessly embed trading, wealth tools, and asset-backed credit options into their existing apps. Atom Chief Operating Officer Olorunfemi Jegede explained that the offering removes the need for financial platforms to engineer post-onboarding wealth tools in-house.
The rollout arrives amid sluggish domestic investment participation, with regulatory data from the Securities and Exchange Commission indicating that less than 4% of adult Nigerians actively engage with the capital markets. Atom builds on CredPal’s existing underwriting and risk architecture, which has processed upwards of $100 million in credit for more than one million consumers. To satisfy local compliance standards, stock trading and crypto transactions are routed via licensed brokerage entities, while credit is underwritten through CredPal and authorized lending collaborators.
