FINTECH Companies involved in illegal financial technology and mobile application lenders who threaten debtors for failing to repay loans are set to have their activities looked into by the order of the House of Representatives
On Thursday, the House of Representatives mandated the House Committee on Banking and Currency; Financial Crimes; and Telecommunications to “investigate the alleged sharp practices and abuses by FINTECH and online mobile digital loan apps and companies in Nigeria and report within four weeks.”
A resolution was arrived at by the Green chamber following the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by a member of the House, Ahmed Satomi, titled ‘Urgent Need to Investigate Sharp Practices by Unregulated Online FINTECH Lending Companies and Abuse of Mobile Digital Loan Apps in Nigeria.’
The lawmaker blamed COVID-19 for job losses, low income, adding that these factors sped up the pace of digitalization of financial services and “the infiltration of some unscrupulous and unregulated financial service operators.”
Satomi made it known that most of the loan apps operate with no regulation by the government, expired licenses and no licensing, adding that most of them were founded by foreign nationals without the required license to operate the volume of financial transactions and illegally operating in the country.
The lawmaker urged the House to investigate the activities of these fintech companies:
- OKash,
- Opay,
- PayLater,
- PalmCredit,
- Branch,
- QuickCheck,
- Aella Credit,
- FairMoney,
- KiaKia,
- EasyCredit,
- NewCredit,
- Umba,
- Carbon,
- FirstNell,
- SoftNaira,
- SharpCash,
- Newcredit,
- Cash Mall,
- NairaLand,
- Naira9ja,
- New Credit Loan App,
- Future Cash, SharpCredit,
- MoneyHub,
- 9jaCash,
- Henloan,
- Get Loan,
- Plenty Cash,
- Fundy,
- iMoneyPlus,
- CashCredit,
- LifeLine,
- Lumos Loan,
- NairaPlus,
- Care Finance,
- Cashbean,
- CashMe,
- LoanMe,
- LifePurse iLoanPro,
- LairaPlus,
- OxLoan and NoNowMoney.