The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), says President Bola Tinubu’s credit scheme will help to close the gap and reduce vulnerability of Nigerians to unethical digital loan companies.
The Acting Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.
Abdullahi who was reacting to unethical practices by some unregistered digital money lenders to their customers, said the scheme would grant Nigerians access to soft loans without collaterals.
He said the scheme would also help to reduce the rate at which Nigerians patronise unregistered loan applications that were prone to maiming and shaming their character.
The acting executive vice chairman said that although the Commission had registered some digital money lenders, most of them who were not registered had continued their unethical practices on their customers.
“What is happening is because the availability of loans is not there in Nigeria but you can see that this government through its `Renewed Hope Agenda’ came up with a credit scheme.
“It has now gone into effect but it is only for government workers for now, it is going to address the gap that the apps were addressing before.
“So once we have that kind of possibility in which a person can get a loan from a recognised institution, banks, it will be a soft-loan without collateral.
“The only collateral you will need is your National Identification Number (NIN) and once you have NIN and Bank Verification Number (BVN).
“That means you are identified and people know that you are the one that has taken this loan and they know how to get their loan back.
“When that gap is now filled, this people (loan companies) will sit up and do the right thing or they fizzle out of existence,’’ he said.
On the Commission’s achievements in the past one year, Abdullahi said It had begun investigations into some unfair practices and irregularities in the market.
“We frown against practices that are monopolistic, we frown against abuse of dominant position in the market.
“In the competition aspect, we found out that there are some companies that are doing some anti-competitive practices and this has led to a sanction against a major international company.
“Beyond the sanction, the aspect that is not well reported is the aspect that we have made them to do some advocacy in the field of tobacco smoking for the young and under-aged.
`We have on-going investigations in other major companies which we found are indulging in other anti-competition practices,’’ the acting executive vice chairman said.
Abdullahi said that advocacy was a major hindrance for the Commission, adding that the FCCPC was planning to have presence in all the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs).
This according to him will be done through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with another government agency to educate people on their rights. (NAN