Jonathan Nwokpor
The Federal Government has declared its intention to enact new regulations for DMLs, or digital money lenders, also referred to as loan applications.
In a Monday interview with TVC, Mr. Babatunde Irukera, the Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, or FCCPC, revealed this.
According to him, the new rules will deal with Nigerians’ growing debt to DMLs.
Irukera pointed out that the main issue facing the industry is that DMLs take unfair advantage of debt recovery.
He continued by saying that the interim framework put in place by the Commission has resulted in an 80% decrease in harassing and defamatory messages from loan apps.
“One of the big issues that we’re seeing is that there’s now a significant level of loan default because people are not able to use these unethical and inappropriate loan recovery mechanisms, and I’m insistent that you cannot say to me that the only language Nigerians understand is to abuse them. No, I disagree.
“We must necessarily do the work no matter how hard it is to find a more sensible way to recover loans because I also agree that if these digital money lenders are unable to recover their loans and drop out of the market, it’s a consumer protection problem because of those who need those types of short-term unsecured lending.
“So, we have to find the balance, and some of the regulations that will come out in 2024 will be a broader approach to responsible borrowing and lending by individuals and corporations”, he said.
The Commission claims to have authorized 211 lenders of digital money.
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