For Sycamore, a peer-to-peer lending company providing individuals and businesses across Africa with easy access to loans and credit, the mission was clear: to empower customers with the financial tools they need to thrive.
But for any digital lender, the real challenge isn’t disbursing loans — it’s ensuring seamless repayments. "It's one thing to give loans," says Kingsley, Head of Product at Sycamore, "but another important part is ensuring customers can repay easily. That’s essential to business sustainability."
And getting that money back was becoming a major roadblock for their team.
The challenge: A slow and frustrating repayment process
One of the biggest obstacles was the mandate setup process. Imagine this: A borrower finally gets approved for a loan, but before they can access the funds, they're told they need to visit the bank, fill out paperwork, and wait days for a mandate to be set up.
What should have been instant and seamless became a slow, tedious, and frustrating process for Sycamore’s customers.
"With our previous partner, customers were expected to visit the bank," Kingsley explains. "That really slowed down how fast we could disburse loans.”
This manual process wasn’t just inconvenient, it was a growing problem. As Sycamore’s lending operations grew, the delays and complexities of setting up mandates made it harder to disburse loans efficiently and limited their ability to serve more borrowers.
They needed a better solution, and they needed it fast.
Why card payments weren’t the answer
As an alternative, Sycamore decided to rely on card payments for loan repayments. But that came with its own set of challenges, especially for high-value loans over ₦100K. "Users found the experience of using cards as a repayment instrument…not great," Kingsley recalls.
Manually entering card details, CVV numbers, and OTPs was cumbersome for borrowers. On top of that, the constant need to update card information created even more friction.
Beyond that, cards could expire, get lost, or—worse—be removed by the borrower, disrupting repayment schedules and leading to more failed transactions.
Between the slow and manual mandate setup process, borrowers needing to visit banks and the friction with card repayments, Sycamore needed a faster, more reliable way to collect repayments—one that didn’t depend on borrowers taking extra steps.
That’s when they turned to Mono. As existing users of Mono, they learned about the Mono Direct Debit product, which offered an easy way to automate repayments directly from borrowers’ bank accounts, eliminating friction and ensuring a seamless loan repayment process.
A faster, more reliable repayment solution with Mono Direct Debit
As early adopters in our private beta program, Sycamore saw an opportunity to eliminate the bottlenecks slowing down their loan disbursement and repayment process.
"When Mono reached out about it, we instantly got in," recalls Kingsley. "It was exactly what we were looking for—fast, seamless, and reliable."
With Mono Direct Debit, Sycamore no longer had to rely on manual processes for loan repayments. Instead, they could set up direct debit mandates in minutes, allowing borrowers to authorize payments straight from their bank accounts—without any extra steps.
The impact was significant:
Mandate setup time dropped from days to under five minutes.
Loan disbursement speed increased by over 50%.
Borrowers could now access funds much faster, without unnecessary delays.
And the results spoke for themselves.
"We’re still tracking the metrics," says Kingsley, "but so far, disbursement times have increased by over 50%—and that really helps us serve our customers. Because we know how much they value instant gratification, right?"
More importantly, Mono Direct Debit transformed Sycamore’s lending—removing roadblocks and making repayments effortless and secure for both the business and its borrowers. Just simple, efficient, digital lending.
Watch the full webinar on how Sycamore improved loan repayments with Mono Direct Debit
Building a smarter lending system with Mono
Even before integrating Mono Direct Debit, Sycamore had already been using Mono’s products to strengthen its lending process.
“Before Direct Debit, we were already using Mono to improve our processes,” says Kingsley. “Mono Connect helps us securely collect bank statements to assess borrowers' credit history, while Mono Lookup allows us to verify customer identities with government-issued records like BVN, NIN, and CAC.”
Today, Sycamore relies on multiple Mono products to power its lending operations:
Mono Connect for seamless access to borrowers’ financial data, helping Sycamore make informed lending decisions.
Mono Direct Debit for automated, secure, and hassle-free loan repayments.
Mono Lookup for seamless identity verification and customer onboarding.
"Integrating Mono’s products has been seamless,” Kingsley adds. “In fact, our backend engineers actually enjoy working with Mono’s APIs.”
With loan collections now fully automated and approval times significantly improved, Sycamore has built a lending system that is faster, more data-driven, and scalable with Mono.
The challenge of seamless loan collection isn’t unique to just Sycamore. Many digital lenders still struggle with failed transactions, manual collections, and repayment uncertainty.
For digital lenders, seamless loan collections is a necessity. Without a reliable, automated collection process, businesses risk high default rates, operational inefficiencies, and borrower frustration. As more lenders adopt smarter and more efficient repayment solutions, the future of digital lending will be shaped by automation, reliability, and borrower convenience.
Looking to eliminate repayment delays and improve loan approval speed like Sycamore? Sign up for Mono Direct Debit and check out our technical guides at mono.co/docs.
