How One Woman’s Loss Became a Lifeline for 23,000 Women

RUYKAYAT’S GROWTH STORY

It Started With Rukayat’s Mother

When Rukayat Kolawole-Bello thinks about financial exclusion, she does not start with statistics. She starts with her mother.

In Orile Iganmu, Lagos, her mother ran a small shop that helped keep the family afloat. It was a modest business, but it was dependable. Daily sales ranged between $10 and $50, and, like many informal traders, she saved what she could, typically about 10 per cent of her earnings, in a small piggy bank inside the shop.

Then one day, the shop burned down. The fire destroyed more than stock and shelving. It wiped out her mother’s livelihood, her savings, and the fragile financial security the family had built. To restart, she needed just $100. But without collateral, formal records or a banking history, she was turned away.

For many families, that kind of rejection can close a door permanently. For Rukayat, it opened a question that would shape her life: why should hardworking women be locked out of opportunity simply because the financial system could not see them?

Years later, with more than six years’ experience in finance and banking, Rukayat decided to build the answer herself. In 2021, at the age of 31, she founded Regxta, a women-led fintech platform designed to provide digital loans, savings, insurance and payment solutions to Nigeria’s unbanked and underbanked communities.

Its purpose was deeply personal, but its relevance was far broader. Across Nigeria, millions of women sustain families, markets and communities through informal enterprise. They trade, save, borrow and repay. Yet many remain excluded from traditional financial services because they lack documentation, credit histories, collateral or access to formal banking channels. Regxta was created for these women.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

The Road to 23,000 Women

The road was not easy. Rukayat faced scepticism from investors, doubts from family and friends, regulatory delays, and the persistent concern that low-income borrowers would be seen as too risky to serve.

The breakthrough came when Chui Ventures invested in Regxta, supported by catalytic backing from the Mastercard Foundation Africa Growth Fund. The investment provided more than capital. It gave Regxta credibility, operating runway, and access to tailored business development support to strengthen its systems, optimise operations and guide its expansion. That support helped convert a powerful idea into a scalable model.

Since receiving investment support in February 2024, Regxta has recorded 151 per cent revenue growth by the end of Q1 2025. Its customer base has grown to more than 23,000 users, with women making up 95 per cent of the clients accessing its services.

The platform has also achieved an 88 per cent customer retention rate, a strong signal of trust in communities that have historically been underserved by formal finance.

The impact extends beyond financial access. More than 8,000 lives have been improved through Regxta’s work, as women micro-entrepreneurs gain access to services that help them stabilise, grow and protect their businesses. The company has also created meaningful work opportunities through its network of 149 accounting agents, 93 per cent of whom are women and 88 per cent young women.

Regxta’s growth reflects the power of gender-intentional investing: capital that does not simply fund businesses, but helps remove the barriers that prevent women-led and women-serving enterprises from scaling.

Challenges remain. Like many fintechs serving underserved communities, Regxta must navigate regulatory complexity, technology adoption barriers, affordability constraints and the need for greater digital and financial literacy among low-income women. Rukayat and her team are responding by refining credit-risk models, strengthening agent networks and expanding outreach into peri-urban and rural communities. The company has also opened new branches to bring services closer to women traders and micro-entrepreneurs who have long operated beyond the reach of formal banking.

Looking ahead, Regxta aims to scale further across Nigeria and beyond. Through initiatives such as WEAVE, new cohorts of women entrepreneurs are being identified for support, helping to expand access to inclusive finance and address the persistent barriers faced by women-led micro-enterprises.

For Rukayat, the mission remains anchored in the memory of her mother’s loss. What began with a burnt shop and a denied $100 loan has become a platform reaching thousands of women. It is a reminder that financial inclusion is not an abstract development goal. It is the difference between a woman rebuilding after a crisis and being forced out of business. It is the difference between surviving day to day and having the tools to grow.

Regxta’s story is not only about fintech. It is about what becomes possible when women who have been overlooked by the financial system are finally recognised as investable, bankable and capable of building prosperity for themselves, their families and their communities.