FCCPC to introduce regulatory policies for online lenders

By Seth Akande

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), is set to establish efficient regulatory structures for online lenders operators in Nigeria. Recall that a court order was given to Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (FCCPC) to pause online lending applications in due recent discoveries.

The FCCPC Executive Vice-Chairman/Chief Executive Office, Mr Babatunde Irukera disclosed this at the World Consumer Rights Day in Abuja. According to him, FCCPC is planning on bringing the loan sharks under regulatory control in the country as a result of certain discoveries during recent raids.

He said, “This is much more serious than we thought and we have to now look at how we can bring these people into the regulatory framework.

“On the raid that we conducted on Opebi Street in Lagos, we discovered that this is much more serious than we thought it is. The hall was very big, each person had a computer with phone to reach loan defaulters.

“In the process, we took from them 119 laptops, eight mobile phones, one table phone and one hard drive. These devices are now with forensic experts and if we look at them and all the things that we can gather from them, we can now decide on the way forward. This is because there are faces behind these fellows.”

Babatunde mentioned that the workers at the sites were unemployed graduates without other means of livelihood, who tried to even riot against, also  prevent them from doing what their job is.

He said, “They said Chinese gave them employment and the Federal Government did not and the Federal Government said they should not continue with what they are doing, adding that they felt it proper to attack the FCCPC, which saw the Police being brought in as cover to shoot in the air to disperse them. It was a terrible experience We have to now look at how we can bring these people into the regulatory framework,” he added.