Five government agencies join hands to hunt down money lending apps harassing, disgracing Nigerians

• With many Nigerians reporting harassment from money lenders, particularly internet loans, the Nigerian government has formed a committee to put a stop to it.
• The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission will chair the committee (FCCPC)
• Calls to relatives, publication of names and photos and other methods are some of the neckjeck approach by the money lenders

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has announced plans to go after money lenders harassing Nigerians.

The head of FCCPC Babatunde Irukera informed the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the plans on Sunday, 26 December and it will be a join operations involving five government agencies.

The joint operation will tackle companies operating illegally and those harassing customers.

Vanguard reports the team includes representatives of FCCPC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

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Others are from National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

The sanctions

Irukera said:

"The committee has been tasked to come up with rules money lending companies must obey.

"They will shut businesses and engage App stores to shut down applications that are infringing and abusive. We are also going to be writing interim regulations and some basic information for all these money lenders to provide information so that people will know who they are.

“Some of them are just Apps that we do not even know who the promoters are. We are going to provide certain frameworks for them to comply with"

On complaints about insurance companies’ services, Irukera says a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) is underway.

The FCCPC chief gave early 2022 as the time-frame of delivery of the bilateral agreement.

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Many loan companies in Nigeria are illegal

In a related story, the Nigerian government has insisted that many loan companies operating in Nigeria are illegal and not registered with appropriate authorities hence their activities are illegally

These loan companies are known for their exorbitant interest rates, privacy abuse and blatant invasion of privacy.

Some of the companies involves in these illegal acts include NowCash, Moniloanplus, 9credit, Monicash among others.

Source: Legit.ng