BREAKING: FG Shuts Down Illegal Online Banks |READ DETAILS
The Federal Government has raided and shut down some illegal online banks operating in Lagos, the nation’s commercial city.
The FG in close alliance with distinct crimes and security outfits in the nation including The Federal Competition Consumer Protection Commission,Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission, National Information Technology Development Agency, and the Nigerian Police Force clamped down a number of unauthorized financial institutions operating on Opebi Road in Lagos’s capital city Ikeja on Friday, the 11th of March.
Big names like GoCash, Okash, EasyCredit, Kashkash, Speedy Choice, Easy Moni made it to the list of online outfits outlawed by the Federal Government.
The FCCPC’s Chief Executive Officer, Babatunde Irukera disclosed the move by the Federal Government was in response to raging complaints from customers. He cited malpractices and violation of privacy in debt recovery drive as leading complaints.
Irukera added the agency had begun investigations into the allegations since 2020.
He said;
“This information started quite a while ago. Some time ago, when the country was on lockdown in 2020 due to the pandemic, we started seeing the rise in money lenders”
Because there was lockdown due to the pandemic, people needed small easy loan which is understandable. But over a period of time, people started complaining about the malpractices of the lenders, so we started tracking it”
“Towards the end of last year, we gathered quite a lot of information. We started working with some other key agencies and the FCCPC led the meeting where we all agreed there would be a joint effort to look into these businesses.”
“The key two things that were subject of concern were what seems to be the naming and shaming violation of people’s privacy with respect to how these lenders recover their loans.”
“Secondly, the interest rate seems to be a violation of the ethics on how lending is done. So, those were the two things that we set out to look for.”
“So, we started an investigation trying to determine the location of these firms. That has been a very difficult thing. We did that for several months and some of them have moved from one place to the another and we have been visiting these places for months”
