Small and medium-sized businesses are not simply smaller versions of large corporations. They often have irregular cash flows, limited formal documentation, close relationships with suppliers and customers, and little time to navigate complicated financial products. That makes product design especially important.
Silas OZOYA’s work building SUBA Capital, together with his public focus on financial inclusion, creates a useful lens for examining the issue. The test of a financial product is not only whether it is technically available. It is whether the intended customer can understand it, qualify for it, use it safely and return to it when needed.
Start with the owner’s financial rhythm
Consider a market trader who restocks twice a week or a service provider whose customers pay after a project is delivered. Both may need finance, but their repayment patterns, documentation and tolerance for uncertainty differ. A one-size-fits-all design can appear efficient while excluding the very people it intends to serve.
Product discovery should explore when money arrives, which bills cannot wait, how records are kept and what happens when a payment is delayed. A lender or financial platform can use those insights to improve eligibility explanations, reminders, application flow and human support.
Trust is an operational feature
Clear pricing matters. So does telling a customer what will happen after an application, when they can expect an answer and where to turn if something goes wrong. Every unclear fee or unexplained delay becomes a reason to distrust the platform. Financial inclusion cannot be measured only by downloads or sign-ups.
Build a product scorecard that reflects real use
- Comprehension: can customers explain the offer and its cost in their own words?
- Completion: how many eligible people finish onboarding without assistance?
- Reliability: do promised transfers, notices and support responses happen on time?
- Repeat usefulness: do customers return because the product solves an ongoing need?
- Responsible outcomes: are risk decisions, affordability and customer treatment built into product success?
Teams should review these measures alongside revenue and growth. Commercial discipline and customer protection are not competing ambitions; they help make the service sustainable.
When inclusion becomes a design principle instead of a marketing claim, teams ask better questions. The objective is not to deliver more screens. It is to help real businesses operate with greater confidence, resilience and choice.
Context: SUBA Capital’s team profile identifies Silas as Founder and CEO.