People rarely think about credit in isolation. Instead, they think about what they want to do with it.
They may be considering a course that could help them develop a new skill, managing a financial gap before their next payday, preparing to purchase inventory for a growing business, investing in equipment for their work, or taking advantage of an opportunity that requires an upfront commitment.
In each of these situations, the opportunity usually comes first. Credit becomes relevant because there is a cost or opportunity attached to pursuing it.
This is an important distinction because much of the traditional credit experience is built around the financial product itself. Someone has a need, searches for a lender, submits an application and, if approved, receives the money. The opportunity that prompted the decision to borrow can become secondary to the process of accessing the credit.
We think there is an opportunity to approach this differently.
What happens when credit is connected more closely to the opportunities people are already pursuing?
Opportunity Often Comes First
Consider the current interest around the Dangote Refinery IPO. For investors who want to participate, the opportunity exists at a specific point in time, but being interested in the offer is not the same as having the liquidity immediately available to act on it. Some may have money committed elsewhere, while others may simply need to manage when their funds become available.
The same principle exists in much more ordinary financial situations. Someone may have money set aside for a longer-term goal, but suddenly need to cover an expense before their next payday. They may have enough income to manage the expense, but the timing does not quite work. Using the money they have already set aside could mean disrupting a plan they have been working towards, while waiting may mean missing an important payment or opportunity.
The same pattern appears in business. A merchant may already have customers waiting to buy, but need inventory before they can fulfil those orders. A creator may have work lined up but need equipment to deliver it. A professional may have identified an opportunity that requires an upfront investment before they can take the next step.
These are different situations, but they share something important. The person is not necessarily looking for credit for its own sake. They are trying to accomplish something, and financing becomes one of the things that can help them do it.
That changes the question we should be asking about credit. Instead of only asking how much someone wants to borrow, we can also ask what they are trying to achieve and whether the financial product being offered actually makes sense within that context.
The Context Around an Opportunity Matters
Opportunities also do not exist in a vacuum. They are created and discovered within communities, businesses, institutions, platforms and networks. These environments often understand more about the opportunity than a traditional credit application can capture.
A learning provider understands the programme someone wants to enrol in. A business platform understands the activity taking place between merchants and their customers. A professional organisation understands the kinds of opportunities its members are pursuing.
This does not mean that being connected to an opportunity should automatically qualify someone for credit. Responsible lending still requires an understanding of affordability, risk and the ability to repay.
The context can help make the credit experience more relevant. It can provide a clearer understanding of why financing is being requested, what it is intended to support and where it fits within the person's broader journey.
This is particularly interesting in markets where financial products have often been designed separately from the environments in which people work, learn, build and create.
Bringing Credit Closer to the Journey
If someone has already found an opportunity, decided to pursue it, and reached the point where financing could help, credit does not necessarily need to feel like an entirely separate journey.
Financial infrastructure can sit closer to the environments where those decisions are already happening.
This could mean financing becoming part of an education platform, a business ecosystem, a professional network or another environment where people are already pursuing opportunities.
The point is not simply to put a loan product somewhere else. It is to make financing more connected to the context in which it is being used.
For a financial product to be meaningfully embedded in an experience, it has to be relevant to it.
Simply making credit available at more points does not automatically create better access. The more interesting question is whether the financial product understands enough about the journey to become genuinely useful within it.
Credit Is Often a Means, Not the Goal
This is why we believe credit should be connected to opportunity.
What people ultimately care about is rarely the loan itself. It’s the education they want to pursue, the business they want to grow, the work they want to complete, the skills they want to develop, or the opportunity they want to act on.
Credit embedded properly in journeys and opportunities can be one of the tools that helps make those things possible.
At Lance, we are interested in building the infrastructure that allows credit to work within those journeys and opportunities, rather than treating every borrowing decision as a standalone transaction.
We are exploring what this can look like across different communities, industries and opportunities, and there is much more to learn.