Fakoyejo Olalekan
The House of Representatives said FairMoney, OKash, Opay, Carbon, and other loan apps in Nigeria will be probed over threats received by debtors.
On Thursday, the lower chambers met to review several national issues, and one of them was the illegal activities of financial technology companies and mobile application lenders.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelList of loan apps House of Representatives will probe
Over 40 loan apps will be probed by the Committee on Banking and Currency, Committee on Financial Crimes, and Committee on Telecommunications.
Prime Business Africa gathered that the investigation, which will last for four weeks, will focus on OKash, Opay, FairMoney, Carbon, SharpCredit, MoneyHub, 9jaCash, Henloan and Get Loan.
Others are Cashbean, CashMe, LoanMe, LifePurse iLoanPro, PalmCredit, Branch, QuickCheck, New Credit Loan App, Future Cash, and Plenty Cash.
Also on the list are Aella Credit, KiaKia, EasyCredit, NewCredit, CashCredit, LifeLine, Lumos Loan, PayLater, Umba, Carbon, FirstNell, LairaPlus, OxLoan and NoNowMoney.
It was learnt that the committees will also look into SoftNaira, SharpCash, iMoneyPlus, NairaPlus, Care Finance, Newcredit, Cash Mall, NairaLand, Naira9ja, and Fundy.
What House of Representatives is saying
During the plenary session, the House said the committees will “investigate the alleged sharp practices and abuses by FinTech and online mobile digital apps and companies in Nigeria and report within four weeks.”
The House resolved to probe the apps after a member of the lower chamber, Ahmed Satomi, moved a motion, which he titled, ‘Urgent Need to Investigate Sharp Practices by Unregulated Online Fintech Lending Companies and Abuse of Mobile Digital Loan Apps in Nigeria.’
Satomi described some of the loan apps as fraudulent and unscrupulous profiteers. He said the lending apps are affecting many low-income Nigerians “who are coerced to borrow and get trapped in the web of sham loan apps hosted on Google Play Store by individuals and companies to swindle the low-income earners.”
