Sarafi is a neutral API layer for Nigerian digital lenders. Before you disburse, check whether an applicant has active loans or recorded defaults at other lenders in the network.
Sarafi sits alongside your existing underwriting process. It returns one thing: whether this applicant has active loans or defaults recorded at other lenders in the network, right now.
One REST endpoint. One API key. Full documentation and a live test environment available at api.sarafi.ng/docs. No proprietary SDK or special tooling required.
When an applicant submits, your system calls POST /v1/check with their BVN. The number is hashed immediately on receipt. Sarafi never stores it.
Sarafi checks the BVN against every active flag in the network and returns whether the applicant is flagged, how many flags exist, how many distinct lenders have flagged them, whether any flag is an active loan or a recorded default, and how many loans have been repaid on record. You make the final lending decision.
Report defaulters via POST /v1/report. Every lender who contributes improves the signal for every other member. Value compounds with scale.
Bureau checks cover formal bank lending. SMS scoring covers your own app's history. Neither tells you whether this applicant opened three other loan applications in the past two weeks. Sarafi answers that question.
Check whether an applicant has active loans or defaults at other network lenders at the moment they apply — not days later when a bureau refreshes.
No lender sees another's data. Sarafi is the trusted middle layer. Competing lenders share data with Sarafi, not with each other.
Every new lender who joins improves the signal for every existing member. Early partners accumulate a data advantage that grows over time.
Sarafi does not replace your bureau check or SMS scoring. It adds the one signal they cannot supply: current exposure across other apps.
Every check and every report is logged immutably. An audit trail that holds up to compliance review, from the first day of operation.
A standard REST API with full documentation and a live test environment. The integration surface is a single endpoint with a straightforward JSON request and response.
The reason lenders share data with Sarafi rather than directly with each other is structural. The system is designed so that sharing reveals nothing a competitor could act on.
Sarafi's pilot programme is open to a limited number of digital lenders. Participants receive full API access at no cost for three months, with no commitment beyond the pilot period. Your data is never shared with other lenders in the network. If the signal does not reduce your default rate on flagged applicants, you walk away having lost nothing.
Request pilot access