The Consumertrics Advisory Series 1.0- a consumer Advocacy initiative of Consumertrics Limited, gathered Consumer protection stakeholders in Government, Financial service providers, Civil society, Consumers and the Academia, to discuss, debate, examine and explore the activities of these Digital Financial services providers activities and conceptualise ways to reverse their crude methods of consumer relationship and lay the necessary foundation that will give succour to consumers while accelerating the country’s consumer access to microloans which can, or is, beneficial as it facilitates investment in working capital, job creation and ultimately financial inclusion.
A couple of months before the event, it was reported that the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission went to raid the offices of a number of unregistered Digital Loan Service providers following several petition received by the commission from distress consumers, and lots of loaning apps were removed from the Google App store and heavy fines were imposed on the owners of these unregistered organisations, but due to the enormous credit gap in the economy, most of the affected organisations have mutated into new platforms to continue their business of tormenting undiscerning consumers who received their urgency framing message broadcasts.
The Consumertrics Advisory Series 1.0 on Responsible Borrowing and lending therefore
presented the best opportunity to galvanise stakeholders in the Nigeria consumer space towards the sense of urgency on the National and subnational levels of ensuring that the activities of these loan sharks are brought to the minimum, while upholding the protection of consumers’ fundamental human rights in responsible digital borrowing and lending transactions.
Following extensive deliberations on the theme and sub themes, participants agreed that the multifarious challenges faced by Nigeria’s unethical digital financial service providers otherwise known as “loan Sharks” required a more deliberate and sustained compliance and enforcement regime.
Click to download the complete Consumertrics Advisory Series 1.0 Report.
