FG Shuts Down Online Banks And Loan Apps.
The Federal Competition Consumer Protection Commission, in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, National Information Technology Development Agency, and the Nigerian Police Force, on Friday, raided some illegal financial institutions operating on Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos.
GoCash, Okash, EasyCredit, Kashkash, Speedy Choice, and Easy Moni were among the financial institutions affected.
Read Also : FG blacklists 6 online trading platforms (Full List)
Customers had complained to the FCCPC about financial institutions’ malpractices,
Customers had accused financial institutions of violating their privacy in their debt recovery efforts, according to FCCPC Chief Executive Officer Babatunde Irukera, who spoke during the raid.
Since 2020, he said, the agency has been investigating the allegations.
“This information began a long time ago,” he explained. We started seeing an increase in money lenders a few years ago, when the country was on lockdown due to the pandemic in 2020.”
Pay Attention To : FG Approves National Policy to Create Blockchain Powered Economy
“People needed small easy loans because there was a lockdown due to the pandemic, which is understandable.” However, as people began to complain about the lenders’ malpractices over time, we began to investigate.”
“Towards the end of last year, we gathered a significant amount of data. We began collaborating with a number of other key agencies, and the FCCPC chaired a meeting at which we all agreed to work together to investigate these businesses.”
Irukera believes that the interest rates charged by online financial institutions appear to be in violation of lending ethics.
“The key two things that were of concern were what appears to be the naming and shaming violation of people’s privacy with regard to how these lenders recover their loans,” he continued.
“Secondly, the interest rate appears to be in violation of the lending ethics. So those were the two things we were searching for.”
Read Also Top 10 Best Apps to Get Instant Loan In Nigeria
“As a result, we began an investigation to find out where these companies were located.” That has been extremely difficult. We did that for a few months, and some of them moved from one location to another, and we’ve been visiting these locations for months.”
However, according to the FCCPC’s director, investigations revealed that the loan companies were neither Nigerian companies nor registered in the country.
“We discovered that the majority of these businesses are based in the same location.” We also discovered that many of them are run by the same individual. They are not Nigerian companies; they do not have a Nigerian address, are not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria, and do not have a business licence.”
As a result, Irukare stated that the agency had written to global app companies requesting that the online banks’ operations be halted.
“Basically, what they have is an app,” he explained, “so we began gathering more information about them.” We enlisted the help of the general public as well as victims. They provided us with additional information.”
“As we gathered more information, we were able to persuade the court to issue a warrant allowing us to conduct a search and seizure investigation.” And a court issued a warrant sometime last month, and between then and now, we’ve been planning a sting operation, which is what you’re seeing here today. We did this because we wanted to make sure we were hitting at a location where we could get a lot of them.”
“In addition to what you see here today, the FCCPC has issued multiple orders today,” he said. Two of them will be sent to vendors: the Apple and Google app stores, where some of these apps can be found. We’ve asked them to disable these companies’ apps so that people are no longer exploited. Second, some of them (the orders) have gone to the bank and asked them to freeze these people’s accounts.”
“It’s important to note, however, that not all money lenders are operating illegally, which is why it’s taken us so long to track down these individuals.”
No, it does not imply that the people we are prosecuting today are the only ones. We’d like to begin with them. We’ve also learned that there are five to seven companies operating at the same address.”
