By Efosa Taiwo

Olumide Oni, a Nigerian data scientist and AI engineer, has revolutionised digital lending with the invention of an intelligent loan assessment system that is now being hailed as a model for the future of banking in West Africa.

His creation, the Intelligent Loan Risk Engine (ILRE), introduced an entirely new approach to credit evaluation, one powered by machine learning, behavioral data analysis, and real-time communication technologies.

The innovation marked a major departure from conventional form-based approvals, replacing them with a feedback-driven, AI-led system capable of evaluating creditworthiness based on predictive patterns and dynamic risk signals.

Central to this transformation is the Customer Loan Application & Information Manager (CLAIM), an end-to-end digital lending platform designed and engineered by Oni to unify loan origination, credit scoring, and anomaly detection into a seamless process.

“I wanted to move the commercial bank from form-based approvals to intelligence-led lending,” Oni said. “I built a neural-data processing layer capable of identifying invisible credit patterns, allowing the system to make high-confidence recommendations based on behavioral risk signals, not just static scores.”

At Keystone Bank, where Oni implemented the system, the results were immediate and transformative.

It was gathered that default rates dropped by 38% within a year, approval times improved by over 45%, and regulatory compliance reporting became 52% more efficient through automated auditing. The system also integrated alternative data sources, such as device metadata, cash flow patterns, and geolocation data to enrich credit profiling and reduce decision-making blind spots.

Built on a modular, microservices-based architecture, the ILRE was designed to be both scalable and interoperable, allowing it to connect with existing banking infrastructure as well as modern APIs. It also leveraged Socket.IO to enable real-time communication between clients and servers, offering live updates on loan applications and facilitating swift customer engagement.

Keystone Bank formally recognised Oni’s distinctive contribution in May 2022 with a Certificate of Excellence, crediting his innovation as a cornerstone in the bank’s transition to intelligent, data-driven lending.

“Olumide’s model did not just automate our credit workflows. It introduced a new cognitive layer into banking operations,” said a senior executive at the bank. “What he built is now being explored as a scalable model across regional banks in Nigeria and West Africa.”

Oni’s breakthrough, which began as a public sector solution at the Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, has grown into a full-scale commercial banking success.

“Today, the CLAIM system is being studied as a replicable framework for banks seeking to adopt intelligent process automation and AI-led governance in lending. This was never about building a tool,” Oni said. “It was about changing how we think about credit itself and moving from guesswork to intelligence, from exclusion to inclusion, and from lagging indicators to proactive decisioning.”