This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by Satomi Ahmed (All Progressives Congress, Borno State) at the plenary on Thursday.
The House of Representatives has stated its willingness to probe unregulated online money lenders who exploit Nigerians through dubious, instant loans.
This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance by Satomi Ahmed (All Progressives Congress, Borno State) at the plenary on Thursday.
Presenting the motion, Ahmed said unscrupulous, unregulated money lenders were on the prowl and were shortchanging low income earners in Nigeria.
He said, “There is an urgent need to investigate the sharp practices by unregulated, online Fintech lending companies that abuse the mobile digital norms in Nigeria.
“There is proliferation of online loans applications by some fraudulent, unscrupulous profiteers affecting many low income Nigerians who are convinced to borrow and get trapped in a way of sharp loans, hosted by Google playstore, by individual companies and swindle the low income earners.”
According to him, these money lenders are advertising their loan services through enticing no-collateral offers via applications on various platforms and websites.
Satomi stated that the loans were given with strings attached that were not always met by the recipients.
The lawmaker expressed concern that beneficiaries would be bombarded with threatening messages if they defaulted through no fault of their own.
He continued: “Most of these loan apps companies and individuals operate with no regulation, no licence at all.
“The status of these operators from the Corporate Affairs Commission shows that founding directors of such apps companies were foreign nationals without required licence to operate the volume of financial transactions.”
As a result, he urged the House to alert and direct all relevant agencies to investigate the activities of online money lenders.
Meanwhile, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) had earlier announced the extension of the deadline for the registration of online money lenders to January 31, 2022.
The FCCPC had recently focused on the activities of these online lenders, particularly the illegal ones, due to allegations of human rights violations and unfair practices, among other things.
The information was disclosed in a statement issued by the Chief Executive Officer, Babatunde Irukera, in which he stated that the earlier 90-day deadline had expired on November 14.