Help centreFAQ
Frequently asked questions
Short answers about verification, certificates, funding, monitoring, billing and your data. For step-by-step help, see the guides for businesses and for funders.
About Acreed
What is Acreed Insights?
Acreed Insights helps funders lend to Nigerian businesses with confidence. Acreedify verifies a business before funding and gives it an Acreed Credibility Score out of 100, with a certificate any funder can check. AcreedPulse follows a loan after it is paid out, through the business’s bank feed, with the business’s consent.
Who is it for?
Businesses that want to show funders they are credible, people who want to borrow in their own name, and funders (lenders, funds and other capital providers) that assess them and monitor the loans they make.
Can I get verified as a person, not a business?
Yes. Choose Individual when you sign up. You are checked on your identity, your home, your work and pay, your credit history and the bank account your pay goes into, never on a company registration or tax number. A Strong or Established score earns a certificate in your own name.
Does Acreed lend money?
No. Acreed does not lend, hold or move loan money. Funders pay out loans and collect repayments through their own banks. Acreed checks the evidence before a loan and keeps the record after it.
Where does Acreed work?
In Nigeria. Businesses verify with Nigerian records (CAC registration, NIN or BVN, FIRS tax registration) and Nigerian bank accounts.
What does it cost?
Where charges apply, a business pays a verification fee before any check runs, and again for each renewal. A funder pays a monthly subscription with a fee for each manager seat, and monitoring uses prepaid credits. The current prices are always shown in the app before you pay anything.
Getting verified
How long does verification take?
Most checks answer in seconds, so you can finish in one sitting if you have everything ready. Your score waits until Acreed’s team has confirmed your address, and, if your business has co-directors, until each of them has verified their identity.
What do I need before I start?
Your BVN or NIN, a government ID, a camera for a selfie, your CAC number and TIN, your operating address with a proof of address, online banking for your business account, your CAC certificate and tax clearance certificate, and your co-directors’ emails.
Why do you need a selfie?
To prove that the person verifying is the person on the ID, and that they are really there. Your selfie is compared with the photo on your NIN or BVN record or, if that cannot settle it, with the ID you uploaded. It is not kept.
My selfie will not go through. What can I do?
Use bright light from the front, keep your whole face in the frame and remove anything covering it. If your computer’s camera is poor, press Show a code for my phone under “Camera not great?” and scan the code with your phone. If it still cannot decide, you can ask a person on our team to check.
What happens when I ask a person to check?
Copies of your selfie and the ID you uploaded are sent to Acreed’s team, encrypted, with your consent. They confirm it is you, ask you to take your photos again, or decide they cannot confirm it. We email you if you are confirmed or asked to retake. The copies are deleted as soon as a decision is made.
Why must my co-directors verify too?
Funders want to know who runs a business, so every director proves their own identity. Each gets an email link. They do not need an account, and their numbers are used for the check and not kept; only a masked version is.
How do you check my business address?
You upload a recent proof of address, such as a utility bill. Our document reader checks that the address you typed is on it, that it is in your business’s or a director’s name, and that it is recent. Then a member of Acreed’s team confirms your business is really there.
Your score waits while they check, and is issued as soon as they confirm. A confirmed address counts toward your score.
Verification stopped and says it could not confirm my identity.
Please do not start again, because it will not change the result. Ask a person to check from the same screen, or contact us.
Score and certificate
What is the Acreed Credibility Score?
A score out of 100 built from a business’s verified evidence: identity, registration, credit, tax registration and bank activity. It sits in one of five bands: Strong, Established, Developing, Emerging and Early Stage. The bands are the same for every business and every funder.
Which scores earn a certificate?
Scores in the Strong and Established bands. The score guide shows each band’s range.
What does the confidence percentage mean?
How much of the expected evidence is in, and how sure each check was. A missing check, or one that came back less certain, lowers it. Completing every check raises it.
Can a funder change my score?
No. A funder’s own criteria never move your score or your band. They produce a separate fit, which says how well you suit that funder’s programme.
How do I improve my score?
Finish every check, make sure each co-director has verified, connect the account your business really trades through, and add a tax clearance certificate and any collateral evidence. The Roadmap tab on your Score page lists what is waiting.
How does a funder check a certificate is genuine?
By scanning its QR code or opening its link. The public page says whether it is verified, expired or no longer valid, with the score, band and dates. No account is needed, and nobody has to contact Acreed.
How long does a certificate last?
Until the “valid until” date printed on it. The score on it does not change in that time. You get reminders by email and in the app before it expires.
How do I renew?
Open Get Verified and press Update details & re-verify. Before expiry, only the checks whose details changed run again, plus a new selfie and ID, a fresh bank statement, a new proof of address, and a new ID photo and selfie from each co-director, and you preview the new score before it replaces the old one. After expiry, every check runs again.
How do funders find my business?
Through their directory, but only if you choose to be listed. The owner or an admin can switch on Let funders find my business in Settings. It is off until you turn it on.
Applying and offers
How do I apply for funding?
You apply to a funder once they invite you. You also need a current certificate. Invitations arrive by notification and email, and the funders who invited you are listed under Funder Directory, with an Apply button.
Can I withdraw an application?
Yes, until you accept the funder’s offer. Press Withdraw beside it in My Applications. The funder is told. Only the owner or an admin can withdraw. Once you have accepted an offer, message the funder instead — they can cancel it.
What does an offer show me?
The funder’s amount, interest rate, how the interest is worked out (flat, reducing balance or interest only), tenure, how it is repaid, and any fees. Read them before you press Accept offer, and ask the funder in Messages if anything is unclear. The funder can record the loan only after you accept, and only on those terms. If the funder changes them, you are asked to accept again.
A funder asked for more information. Where do I reply?
In Messages. The funder’s note is there, and a reply keeps your application moving.
Who in my business can accept an offer?
The owner or an admin. A viewer cannot.
What do the application statuses mean?
In Review: the funder is looking at it or has asked for more. Approved: you have an offer. Funded: the funder has recorded paying out the loan. Declined: the funder has said no. Withdrawn: you withdrew it.
After funding
What is loan monitoring?
After a loan is paid out, AcreedPulse reads the business’s bank feed, with its consent, to follow the loan’s health: repayments, the conditions of the loan, and cash flow. Both the business and the funder see the loan’s health.
Is anything read before I agree?
No. Nothing is read from your bank for monitoring until the owner or an admin grants consent and chooses the account to share.
What does my funder see while my loan is monitored?
The transactions on the accounts you chose to share, your loan’s health and your repayment record. The connection is read-only, so nobody can move money through it.
Can I pause monitoring?
Yes. Pause monitoring on the Loan Monitoring page stops new bank activity being shared; what was shared before stays with your funder. Resume monitoring starts it again. Your funder is told either way.
I paid my funder. Why does Acreed not show it?
Money never moves through Acreed, so record the payment yourself: on Repayments, press I’ve made this payment and enter the date. It counts once your funder confirms it, or once your bank feed shows the payment leaving your account.
When is a payment counted as missed?
When an instalment is still unpaid three days after its due date. If the bank feed already shows the payment, it is not counted as missed.
My funder says they added my loan to Acreed. What do I do?
Open their email and press Claim my account, sign in with the code we send, then choose a bank account to share and grant consent. Nothing is shared until you agree.
For funders
Why do funders need to be verified?
Businesses share sensitive evidence with funders, so funders can be verified too. When your organisation needs verifying, your dashboard says so: an administrator submits the organisation’s CAC details and their own identity, and Acreed’s team reviews it. Until it is approved, actions that rely on trust, like opening applications, are held back.
How do I find businesses to fund?
The Directory shows verified businesses that chose to be listed and match the sectors and minimum score you set. Invite one to apply with one of your criteria forms. You can also send a sign-up link to a business that is not on Acreed yet.
What is the difference between band and fit?
The band comes from the business’s score and is the same for every funder. Fit is your own judgement: how well the business suits your programme under the weighting in your criteria form.
Can I monitor loans I made before using Acreed?
Yes. Import them from a spreadsheet under Funded Portfolio. Each business is emailed to claim its loan, accept monitoring and connect its bank.
What can each person on my team do?
An Administrator does everything. A Portfolio manager works only their own book. A Viewer reads everything and changes nothing. Only portfolio managers need a paid seat.
How is monitoring charged?
With prepaid credits, where one credit is one naira. Each bank read uses credits: one price to read a single account, or a flat price to read all of a business’s shared accounts. Each loan’s Cash flow tab shows what its reads cost, and Billing & credits shows your balance and how many weeks it will last.
What happens if our credits run out?
Bank reads stop and monitoring pauses. You are told, and it starts again as soon as you top up.
Can I set covenants on a loan?
Yes: a debt cover target, a minimum cash balance, a revenue floor and a leverage ceiling. Set them when you fund the loan, in an import, or later on the loan’s page. Each shows Met, Watch or Breach against the live bank feed.
Privacy and security
Can anyone move money from my bank account?
No. Bank connections through Mono, our bank connection partner, are read-only. Acreed reads statements and account activity. It cannot make payments.
Who can see my business’s data?
You and the people on your team. A funder sees your evidence when you apply to them, and, before a loan, only figures from your bank statements such as monthly totals, never individual transactions. Once a loan is funded and you agree to monitoring, that funder sees the transactions on the accounts you share. Anyone with your certificate’s link sees its score, band and dates, unless you switch that link off. If you list your business, matching funders see it in their directory. Our team and service providers handle data only to run the service, and each organisation’s data is kept separate from every other’s.
What do you keep about me?
The results of your checks, the details read from your identity records, your business details, your documents (including your government ID), and summary figures from your bank statements. While a loan is monitored, the transactions on the accounts you share are kept too. Identity numbers are stored encrypted, and funders see at most the last four digits, though the full number may appear on the ID document you share with them. The privacy notice has the detail.
Do you keep my selfie?
No. It is used for the checks and then discarded. The one exception is when you ask a person to check your photos: copies of your selfie and ID are then made for the review, stored encrypted, and deleted once a decision is made, or after a set time if nobody decides. The ID you uploaded during verification stays among your documents and is shared with the funders you apply to.
Which data protection law applies?
The Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023. We rely on your consent for the checks, which you can take back, and on our terms of use and your loan agreement for the rest. The privacy notice explains each.
How long does my bank stay connected?
Only while something needs it: a valid certificate, an open application or a monitored loan, plus a short grace period. Then we disconnect it and tell you. Settings, then Banking, shows how long each bank stays connected, and you can disconnect sooner.
Can I delete my account?
Yes, from Settings. It is immediate and cannot be undone. If colleagues stay in the business, only you leave. If you are the last person in it, deleting is refused while a funder is still monitoring a loan, until monitoring ends.
Who do I contact about my data?
Email legal@acreedinsights.com with any question or request about your personal data.
Still need help?
Ask a person.
Send us a message and someone from the team replies by email, usually within one business day. If you are signed in, the assistant in the app can also answer questions about your own account.