FG to Shut Down Illegal Money Lending Businesses

The Federal Commission on Competition and Consumer Protection (FCCPC) has confirmed that the joint committee addressing the violation of consumer rights in the money lending industry will shut down illegal businesses at the beginning of its application.

Babatunde Irukera, executive director of the FCCPC, told the Nigerian News Agency in Abuja, recently that the application would start soon.

The reports stated that the joint committee was made up of representatives from the FCCPC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Economic and Criminal Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Other agencies involved in the committee are the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Irukera pointed out that the committee would also write interim regulations that money lending companies must comply with.

The Executive Director of the FCCPC said“The joint committee is meeting and agreeing on how to proceed, but I can say that two of the joint committee entities will go to the field and do the compliance work now, very soon.

“They will close deals and involve app stores to shut down certain abusive and infringing apps.

`We are also going to write interim regulations and some basic information for all these lenders to provide information so that people know who they are.

“Some of them are just Apps for which we don’t even know who the promoters are.

“So, we are going to provide them with certain frameworks to comply with before we do business.”

Commenting on the growing number of consumer complaints about services, Irukera said the commission was moving forward on its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

He stated further that they anticipate that when they finalize that MoU early next year, they will have more interventions across the industry in that space.

“We get a lot more complaints about policyholders who have paid their premium and they have not been resolved, so we are involving NAICOM in that,” Irukera added.