Lending is a regulated business and is generally regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the various states.
The CBN issue microfinance bank, finance house, and commercial bank licenses as the primary means of regulating lending. States, on the other hand, license cooperatives and money lenders.
An individual can lend without being licensed by either of them but by the state lending licensing rules, an individual lender must comply the the state lending laws even without being licensed.
To be an individual lender, the primary business cannot be lending.