The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), has taken down no less than 50 loan apps from Google Play Store, the agency’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Babatunde Irukera stated.
In an interview where he made this disclosure, Irukera lamented the rates at which the loan apps harass their users, saying that even after they were taken down from the Google Play Store, some of them still find other means of restoring their businesses.
His words: “Many of the platforms are very amorphous in nature. You can shut them down by ordering Google to take them down on Playstore and asking banks to freeze known accounts. However, their familiarity and wide technology options allow them to find other ways to do their business, including availability for download on other platforms or direct website access, and other ways of conducting transactions without the traditional banking infrastructure. This is why some are able to return to business.
“Regardless, their businesses have been severely restricted and we continue to gather intel on the perpetually badly behaved and restrict their opportunity to transact by continuing restrictions and prohibitions on other services that support their businesses.
“The new Limited and Interim Digital Lending Guidelines released recently by the Joint Taskforce through the commission is an additional and more institutionalised step in setting guardrails to streamline digital lending to be sure it is not abusive or exploitative.”
Why FCCPC is cracking down on illegal loan apps
In order to assist customers with urgent needs, quite a number of loan apps have been established for the sole purpose of providing short-term credits.
However, while these loan apps offer the services they were established for, they have in recent months resorted to unprofessional measures like cyberbullying, harassment, and breach of data privacy of their customers, who may have defaulted on their debt servicing.
Findings by BizWatch Nigeria unraveled that people prefer them when compared to conventional banks because they don’t require collateral and proper documentation.
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