The Group Managing Director of Zedcrest Group, parent company for Zedvance, Adedayo Amzat, has announced a strategic shift in the firm’s asset deployment, committing 100 per cent of its active loan portfolio to Small and Medium Enterprises and critical ecosystem enablers.According to him, this is part of a major move to address the financing constraints plaguing Nigeria’s mid-market enterprises.
Amzat made this disclosure on Tuesday at the Zedvance Business Roundtable themed “Unlocking Growth: The Role of Smart Financing in Building Resilient Businesses.”
The high-profile event brought together business leaders, industry professionals, and key economic stakeholders to explore how sector-specific financing and innovative lending can drive sustainable business growth in Nigeria’s evolving macroeconomic landscape.
Addressing the gathering during his keynote, Amzat emphasised that while public attention is often captured by massive corporate Initial Public Offerings, the true engine of the nation’s economic survival rests on the shoulders of mid-sized operators.
He said, “The people gathered in this room, and the ecosystems that you all represent in one shape or form, are the true drivers of the Nigerian economy,” Amzat declared, highlighting the resilience of entrepreneurs navigating a challenging operational terrain.
“I am deeply honoured to be standing in front of people who are fighting day and night, tooth and nail; people who often cannot get the right sort of financing, who cannot access the adequate land capital required to execute projects, or who cannot secure enough corner shops to set up petrol stations.”
Addressing the historical challenges of managing credit risk in a volatile environment, the GMD explained that Zedvance was pioneering “ecosystem-linked solutions”.
This model leverages structured partnerships with corporate aggregators to safely funnel liquidity to clustered smallholders in sectors like agriculture, automotive distribution, and energy.
Amzat explained, “Let’s strip away the corporate jargon. It simply means, ‘Let’s grow the economy together.’ If you are in the automotive ecosystem, for example, how can we work together to make the ecosystem itself a high-performing engine? We want to grow the pie together so that your individual portion becomes significantly larger, rather than fighting to be the sole survivor in a tiny, shrinking market.”
The roundtable served as the launchpad for Zedvance’s aggressive 18-month growth strategy. Transitioning from its foundational roots in high-velocity retail consumer lending, Amzat announced a massive capital deployment target to scale up corporate and production-focused enterprises.
“Outside of our physical infrastructure, our computers, desks, and chairs, every single item on the asset side of our balance sheet consists of active loans,” Amzat revealed to stakeholders.
“Over the next 18 months, we are deploying N500bn to deepen our support for growth-ready enterprises. A business loan enables an enterprise to scale production, hire 100 more individuals, and distribute more goods, multiplying the macroeconomic impact a hundredfold compared to a single consumer loan,” he added.
Amzat assured entrepreneurs that they did not need to exhaust their timelines engaging with rigid, traditional commercial banking structures that overcomplicate the borrowing process.
“As a core member of the Z Crest Group, we possess access to deep, continuous local and international financing lines. Our primary task is simply to design the right credit frameworks; the capital is ready for deployment,” he stated.
The roundtable featured three high-level panel discussions that brought deeper sector-specific context to the framework of smart capital intervention.
The panel on Food and Health Systems was moderated by a seasoned Business Manager in Agribusiness and Commodities, Folasade Toromade. The discussion featured key industry operators, including the Managing Director of IBBDS Group, Dauda Oladele; the Managing Director of 5ivers Outgrowers, Adeyemi Akinyemi; and Mobolaji Ajayi. The panel analysed critical bottlenecks in local commodity supply chains and health distribution networks.
The panellists noted, “Achieving real food security and resilient health networks requires funding structures that go straight to the root of production. When we cluster smallholders and outgrowers with structured credit, we directly lower input volatility, eliminate middlemen inefficiencies, and naturally insulate the market from crippling food inflation.”
Another vital session focused on navigating the fast-changing Energy Business and managing rising operational realities. This panel was moderated by the Manager of Legal and Compliance at Zedcrest Group, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and brought together a robust lineup of leaders: the CEO of Rivy, Damilola Olawoye; Senior Business Executive, Emmanuel Rominiyi; Senior Business Manager, Commercial Solutions at Zedvance Finance, Daniel Ajayi; and Jide Pratt.
Speaking during the session, the experts noted, “With the post-subsidy cost of energy, businesses must structurally optimise their energy portfolios to protect their margins. Smart financing solutions, especially asset financing tailored for renewable energy arrays and commercial solar deployment, are no longer just long-term alternatives; they are baseline prerequisites for corporate survival today.”
A third panel rounded out the day’s specialised tracks by tying sector realities back to national fiscal and monetary frameworks, analysing policy tools such as the foreign exchange market float and recent tax reforms. The specialists agreed that while transitional friction was high, removing distortionary interventions yielded a far more predictable playground for genuine builders.
Following the panel sessions, which analysed recent fiscal and monetary reforms in Nigeria, including fuel subsidy removal and the floating of the foreign exchange market, Amzat provided a concluding perspective on the broader economic outlook.
While acknowledging that the Central Bank’s tightly controlled monetary policy presents a steep hill for manufacturers, he expressed strong optimism that the policy lag would eventually tame inflation and lower borrowing costs across the board.
Special emphasis was placed on funding value-addition sectors such as domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing, logistics, and renewable energy to shield local businesses from foreign exchange shocks.
Concluding the session, the GMD reiterated that the institution’s success was tied strictly to the survival of its clients.
“Our products are data-driven and structured like an objective checklist: you input the client data and the use of funds, and the pricing model generates an honest rate. We win only when our customers win,” Amzat said.
