About
A key is a small thing. It is also the difference between standing outside and being home.
Millions of Nigerians can afford a home and still cannot get one. Not because they do not earn enough, but because the financing was never built for them.
The name
Miftah means key.
مفتاح — miftah — is Arabic for key.
We chose it because it says the whole thing in one word. A key to a home for people the banks wrote off. A key to financing that does not charge interest. A key to doors that have stayed shut for no good reason.
…key to sustainable homes
Mission
Make owning a home possible without asking anyone to compromise.
Africa's housing shortage is not really a building problem. Homes get built. What is missing is a way for ordinary people to pay for them.
Most Nigerians have no formal credit record, no large deposit, and no interest in terms that conflict with their beliefs. So they are turned away before anyone looks at what they actually earn.
We built Miftah for them. We are a technology company, not a bank, and that is exactly what lets us look at people a bank has already closed the file on.
What we stand for
Three commitments, in order.
Ethical
No interest, at any stage. Every partner we introduce you to has to price a share in a real property, agreed once and shown in full. If a term cannot be explained plainly, it does not belong in the contract.
Affordable
We start where the need is greatest, not where the margins are easiest. That means homes for low and middle income earners, priced around what people actually earn.
Accessible
Being told where you stand, and why, is the product. A rejection with no reason attached is a failure no matter how compliant it is.
Where we work
Nigeria first.
The conditions that make Miftah necessary here repeat across the continent and into the Gulf.
Now
Nigeria
Africa's largest economy and its largest housing shortfall. Everything gets proved here first.
Next
Pan-Africa
The same gap exists across West and East Africa. We follow the diaspora routes and developer relationships we build here.
Later
North Africa & the Gulf
Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, then Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar — places where Islamic finance is already the norm.
The team
Two founders who have lived this problem.
Sulyman Lawal
Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Seven years in Nigerian real estate, business development and investment. Previously Business Development Lead at Roadrunner Mobility Tech and Project Lead at Reality Homes Africa. Member of the Nigerian–Saudi Arabia Chamber of Commerce.
Muhammad Hassan
Co-Founder & Product / Technical Lead
Full-stack engineer. Owns Miftah's technical architecture, product decisions and the build itself. Has delivered software for clients across the United States, United Kingdom and Pakistan.
Governance
How we keep this honest.
Financial services run on trust. Here is how we earn it.
Regulatory
Miftah is a financial technology company. We are not a bank, a lender or a mortgage institution, and we do not provide, approve or decline financing. We are working through Nigerian regulatory requirements with startup legal counsel.
Shariah supervision
Every partner on our panel has to offer Shariah-compliant financing, structured on Musharakah Mutanaqisah. We are appointing a dedicated Shariah Compliance Officer to review and certify that panel, with independent external review alongside it.
Your data
We are building to meet Nigerian data protection law, and GDPR for customers in Europe. Identity checks and fraud monitoring are part of the architecture, not an afterthought.
Company structure
Nigerian registration for local operations, with a Mauritius holding entity planned for cross-border work.
Where we stand
Honestly, at the beginning.
MiHome is live. The readiness check is open to anyone, the first one is free, and there is nothing to join before you use it.
More than a hundred property developers have asked to list homes with us, and Miftah was selected for the Innovest Afrika Ignite Accelerator — an eight-week programme for early-stage African companies.
We would rather be measured than believed. Financing homes directly is where this goes, and we will say so when it happens, not before.