Mama Wunmi is a petty trader selling used assorted items like soft drinks, milk sachets, pure-water and local bread in her rented shop that cost her about N12,000 per year. As a single mother with three children; two in primary school and one in Polytechnic, she had no option other than to take a loan of N20,000 on a phone App at the behest of a special need.
But that became very costly and drove her to the brink of shame and almost madness.
In my last article on corruption and mental health, l had alluded to the fact of house wives taking loans from all sorts of money lenders rightly called “Gbomule-lantern” translated as “We’ll put your breast on lit lantern if you don’t pay as at when due”.
I have since learned that even where this is a scary threat, women had been ‘captured’ by these loan sharks and locked for the day in unwashed toilets by the help of ‘unknown Police’. Some were subjected to ‘Shaming’ along their streets when ‘captured’. At the group level, (lenders sometimes organize women into groups and give them a lump sum) ‘Shaming’ is always carried out by the people in the group the borrower belongs. They will drag her out by force and shout or sing abusively at her.
Why Google and Nigeria’s Protection Commission must fight Loan App demons to standstill
The loan app companies are more subtle at the point of giving out the loan but can be nasty when the payment is due but the borrower is not forthcoming with the payment. Before they begin to make phone calls to people on the borrower’s contacts found in the database of his or her phone, they have a way of instilling fears into the soul of the borrower using disinformation. Here is a heavily edited letter by one of the companies to one of their borrowers:
XXXXX LEGAL PRACTITIONER,
SIR/MA,
At this point we have seen that you have decided not to pay your loan. XXXXXXX regrets doing business with you. As debt like yours now has resulted to the company going bankrupt. That’s the height of wickedness. YOUR details HAS BEEN REPORTED TO AUTHORITIES with the help of NIMC(national identity management commission). Your details has been uploaded on NATIONAL DATA as FRAUD as your NATIONAL IDENTITY NUMBER has been BLACKLISTED by the AUTHORITIES you were reported to. Your BVN will be blocked tonight You won’t know the gravity of the damages this little amount you owe XXXXXXX will cause you. It’s little but it will deprive you of so many things and cause MISFORTUNE FOR YOU.
SIGNED:
BARRISTER XXXXXX
In his narration to me, the victim panicked and became very sick and within few days of sleepless nights began to emaciate. The stress was heavy and high blood pressure became uncontrollable. He began to sell all his valuable at give away prices. Along the line, the company began to make phone call to the contacts they were able to find on his database and also reposting “unpublished-able” images back to him with a threat to putting it in the public domain. Pure blackmail!
Meanwhile, following in the footsteps of Nigeria and Kenya governments who are already pushing back on the loan app demonic activities, Google announced first week of April new plans to debar loan apps on its play store from accessing sensitive user data starting from May 31, 2023.
It is said that Google had over a period of time been inundated with petitions from individuals and interactions by government agencies over the easy access to consumers’ data by the so-called lenders who use illegal tactics of debit shaming and a host of other unethical data-sharing practices to torture their customers into repayments.
Leading the push back from the government is the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal which was established by an Act in 2018. The agency is charged with the promotion of competition in the Nigerian markets at all levels to eliminate monopolies, prohibit abuse of dominant market position and to penalize restrictive trade and business practices.
Interestingly, but not widely reported, the Nigeria’s Protection Commission had been highly proactive in adopting strict regulatory oversight in the subject area of this article. They have been gradually but diligently overhauling the industry. The enforced strict regulations has largely shielded the informed consumers and had led to the elimination of hundreds of unscrupulous loan apps from play store leaving about 173 circa 2022.
They have also been very active regarding the issue of “Crazy Billing/ Unmetered Households and Business Consumers” to wit. They have been engaging the Electric Distribution Companies and has done much on their “Whistle Blower Initiative”. What is however needed is an unrelenting publicity in educating consumers of their rights and the availability of FCCP personnels to help them.
Unfortunately, it is not time for freedom song yet. FCCP has to intensify grassroot education and bring about diligent prosecutions to serve as deterrent to others. Also, one sure way to reduce bribery in the electric distribution saga, is to insist that all Nigerian households are supplied with pre-paid meters. And more importantly, with the removal of electricity from the exclusive list, License should be given to all competent players by each state.
Howbeit,I am reliably informed during my research on this article that consumers are free to lodge complaints in the offices of FCCP nationwide.
In Lagos, the office to contact is at No. 3, Ladoke Akintola Street G.R.A, Ikeja or via email: lagos@fccp.gov.ng, while the Southwest office is located at Finance Building Complex, Secretariat, Abere, Oshogbo, Osun State or southwest@fccp.gov.ng
