Getting started with the Developer APIs

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What are the Developer APIs?

Lendsqr is a Lending-as-a-Service (LaaS) platform that helps lenders launch and scale their business quickly and cost-effectively. The Developer APIs expose a subset of that platform, as APIs, to organizations and external lenders who have their own apps and services and want to build their own technology stack on top of it.

They provide APIs for lenders and other fintech companies to confirm the identity of their customers, identify blacklisted debtors, make quick and cost-effective decisions during loan decisioning, and collect repayments using direct debit.

What the Developer APIs are not: they are not a credit bureau, and not a lender or payments service in themselves. They are building blocks you assemble into your own lending or fintech product.

Important: Nigerian data privacy law requires clear, explicit consent from users before their information is accessed through these APIs. You are fully liable for any breach of this requirement, and you must be licensed as a lender (or otherwise legally entitled) to use services that touch borrower data. Evidence of your license is required before access is granted.

Step 1: Get your API key

  1. Log in to your Lendsqr admin console. If you don’t have one yet, sign up for Lendsqr first: the Developer APIs are available to every organization, there is no separate account to create.
  2. In the sidebar, expand Developer and select Apps.
  3. Click Create an app, give it a name, and select the API scopes it needs.
  4. Copy the API key displayed on screen. You won’t be able to see it again unless you reset it; see Resetting an app’s API key.

Step 2: Choose an endpoint

The Developer APIs offer a range of services to help you launch and scale your business, including:

  • Authorizing direct debit, with consent, for repayments
  • Getting the bank accounts, with consent, tied to a customer’s BVN
  • Matching a customer’s image against what’s on their BVN
  • Getting the name and details of a bank account number
  • Getting credit information about a borrower
  • Getting probable fraud information from our Karma blacklist
  • Accessing a borrower’s credit performance information from the Lendsqr ecosystem

See Use cases for the Developer APIs and the API reference section on the Developers hub to pick the endpoint that fits your use case.

Step 3: Make the API call

You can call the API directly from your codebase, or test it in a tool like Postman first; see Using Postman to call the API. There’s no separate collection to import: just set your API key as a Bearer token and call the endpoint URL directly.

Here’s a sample call from Python, using the Get Banks endpoint for Direct Debit:

import requests

api_key = 'your_api_key_here'
url = 'https://adjutor.lendsqr.com/v2/direct-debit/banks'

headers = {
    'Authorization': f'Bearer {api_key}'
}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
print(response.json())

A successful call returns a response like this:

{
  "status": "success",
  "message": "success",
  "data": {
    "data": [
      {
        "id": 1,
        "name": "Access Bank",
        "bank_code": "044",
        "institution_code": "000014",
        "url": "https://lendstack-s3.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/bank_logos/044.png",
        "activation_amount": "50.00",
        "meta": "{\"mandate-activation-amount\":50,\"mandate-activation-bank\":\"Paystack-Titan\",\"mandate-activation-account-number\":\"9880218357\"}"
      },
      {
        "id": 10,
        "name": "First Bank of Nigeria",
        "bank_code": "011",
        "institution_code": "000016",
        "url": "https://lendstack-s3.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/bank_logos/011.png",
        "activation_amount": "50.00",
        "meta": "{\"mandate-activation-amount\":50,\"mandate-activation-bank\":\"Paystack-Titan\",\"mandate-activation-account-number\":\"9880218357\"}"
      }
    ],
    "meta": {
      "records": 19,
      "page": "1",
      "pages": 1,
      "page_size": "100"
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "cost": 1,
    "balance": 1010
  }
}

And that’s it: you’ve made your first API call.

Troubleshooting tips

If you get an error, work through this checklist:

  • Confirm the endpoint URL you’re using is valid.
  • Confirm the variables sent to the endpoint are correct and in the right format.
  • Make sure you’re using the correct API key.
  • Confirm that the service you’re calling was selected as a scope when you created your app.
  • Make sure you have an active internet connection.

Next steps

Explore the rest of the endpoints under the Developers hub: fetching transaction history, running credit decisions, setting up direct debit mandates, and more.

If you get stuck or have questions, email [email protected].

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