Some illegal loan apps operating physically on Opebi road in the Ikeja area of Lagos, have been raided and subsequently shut down from doing business.
The Federal Competition Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), conducted the raid on Friday, March 11, 2022.
GoCash, Okash, EasyCredit, Kashkash, Speedy Choice, and Easy Moni, were all among the financial institutions that were raided and shut down.
In the course of the raid, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera, explained that the raid was necessitated, as customers had accused the financial institutions of violating their privacy in their debt recovery drive.
Following a series of complaints from different customers, who had been victimised in their debt recovery drive, Irukera said the agency had begun investigations into the allegations, which was dated as far back as 2020.
He said, “This information started quite a while ago. Some time ago, when the country was on lockdown in 2020 due to the pandemic, we started seeing the rise in money lenders.
“Because there was lockdown due to the pandemic, people needed small easy loan which is understandable. But over a period of time, people started complaining about the malpractices of the lenders, so we started tracking it.
“Towards the end of last year, we gathered quite a lot of information. We started working with some other key agencies and the FCCPC led the meeting where we all agreed there would be a joint effort to look into these businesses.
“The key two things that were subject of concern were what seems to be the naming and shaming violation of people’s privacy with respect to how these lenders recover their loans.
“Secondly, the interest rate seems to be a violation of the ethics on how lending is done. So, those were the two things that we set out to look for.
“So, we started an investigation trying to determine the location of these firms. That has been a very difficult thing. We did that for several months and some of them have moved from one place to another and we have been visiting these places for months.”
The FCCPC chief also revealed that the loan apps were neither Nigerian companies nor registered in the country.
