Nigerian Government Sets New Deadline for Digital Money Lending Companies To Register

• The Federal government has set a new deadline for companies offering online loans to Nigerians to register
• The move the government believes will create sanity in the system and stop consumer rights abuse.
• Recently the Consumer Protection Commission raided the offices of “illegal” digital loan companies operating in Ikeja

The Nigerian government via the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission(FCCPC) has announced the extension of the deadline for the registration of online money lenders to March 27, 2023.

The Chief Executive Officer of the commission, Babatunde Irukera disclosed this in a statement on its website, Punch reports.

Irukera stated that the extra time was to ensure the registration of Digital Money Lenders whose registration was still in process and to prevent significant market disruptions.

It is the third time the commission has delayed the registration deadline since enforcing mandatory registration in August 2022.

The statement reads:

“On December 6, 2022, in furtherance of the collaboration of the Inter-Agency Joint Task Force, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission extended the deadline for the registration of Digital Money Lenders to January 31, 2023.

“This was to ensure the registration of DMLs whose registration was still in process and to prevent significant market disruptions.

“The Commission noted, however, that several DMLs have not yet provided all relevant documentation to complete their registration process.

FR“To this end, the Commission is further extending the registration deadline to Monday, March 27, 2023.”

Digital loan lenders arrest

In March 2022, the Cable revealed that FCCPC in conjunction with the ICPC, the National Information Technology Development Agency(NITDA), and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) raided the offices of “illegal” digital loan companies operating in Ikeja, Lagos over alleged consumer rights abuse.

The commission noted customers had accused the financial institutions of violating their privacy in their debt recovery drive.

FG releases names of 94 companies as authentic digital money lenders

Meanwhile, in another report, a list of newly approved digital money lenders was recently released by FCCPC.

Of the 94 approved lenders also known as loan apps, 49 got full approvals while 45 received provisional approval.

The FCCPC said the criteria used the granting the approvals include calabargistblogimacy, and compliance with the anti-money laundering act, among others.

Source: calabargistblog.com.ng