FCCPC Approves 173 Money Lending Apps

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) approved 173 money-lending mobile applications in Nigeria.

However, out of 173 apps, 119 have been granted full approvals while 54 others have approval based on conditions. This approval came after several loan apps were reportedly harassing Nigerians.

The ministry of government gave a deadline of March 27 to the companies to register themselves with the government under "Limited Interim Regulatory/ Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending 2022" to get the approvals.

Now, FCCPC has disclosed the list of approved applications that Nigerians can use in the country and those apps that were not approved will not be able to operate.

Money lending digital facilities like Branch International Financial Services Limited, Fairmoney Micro Finance Bank, Pivo Technology Limited, Renmoney Microfinance Bank Limited, Carbon Microfinance Bank Limited and Creditwave Finance Limited are some of the approved apps.

"In addition to the enforcement action(s) and in furtherance of the desire to promote fair, transparent and mutually beneficial alternative lending opportunities apart from traditional lending to consumers," FCCPC said last year in August about its work against money lending apps that harasses citizens," Punch reported.

They added, "The inter-agency Joint Regulatory and Enforcement Task Force has developed and mutually adopted a Limited Interim Regulatory/ Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending, 2022 as the first and interim step to establishing a clear regulatory framework."

Apps that were not approved by the FCCPC will be removed from Google's Play Store, which will make them unable to download.

Google announced in November via Developer Program Policy that money lending apps in countries like Nigeria, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Kenya must comply with the rules of their respective countries.

Last month, Google removed hundreds of money-lending apps from the Play Store in Kenya. Nigeria Data Protection Bureau, on the other hand, disclosed that they were still working on tracking illegal loan apps in February.

However, the list of illegal loan sharks have been disclosed: Maxi Credit, Here4U, Chacha and SoftPay.

According to multiple reports, these illegal loan apps are used to offer a loan and take an individual's database including financial and credit history, contact lists, and all other personal data available on the person's phone.

Moreover, they don't approve a full loan and instead pay only a smaller amount of what was originally asked by the user. After a couple of days, the person will be demanded to pay back the money with an illegal interest rate via phone calls and messages. Eventually, it turns out a harassment operation against the user.

Users can identify such applications by cross-checking if it is available on Google Play Store or not. While most of the illegal or fake apps might be visible on Google Play Store, most of them can be downloaded using APK files via unofficial websites.

At the request of FCCPC, Google has already removed many such apps from its platform completely.