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The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) of Nigeria has announced that it has approved 173 digital lending applications to operate in the country.

 

Out of the 173, 119 have full approvals while 54 have conditional approvals. The commission started a registration drive to protect Nigerians from predatory lending practices by loan apps.

 

The commission released a ‘Limited Interim Regulatory/Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending 2022’ to regulate the digital lending space, making registration and approval a prerequisite for companies seeking to operate in the space.

 

After multiple extensions to the deadline, the commission finally closed the registration on March 27, 2023. The commission has released a list of approved apps that can operate in the country, and any company without approval will not be able to operate in the digital lending space.

 

Commenting on the FCCPC’s effort against digital lending apps, the commission said, “In addition to the enforcement action(s) and in furtherance of the desire to promote fair, transparent and mutually beneficial alternative lending opportunities apart from traditional lending to consumers, the inter-agency Joint Regulatory and Enforcement Task Force has developed and mutually adopted a Limited Interim Regulatory/Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending, 2022, as the first and interim step to establishing a clear regulatory framework.”

 

The guidelines require permission to proceed in digital lending, provide a limited moratorium period for existing businesses to comply in order to continue in digital lending, and mandate different service providers in the relevant ecosystem to require regulatory approval before providing services.

 

The FCCPC has listed some of the approved loan apps, including Branch International Financial Services Limited, Fairmoney Micro Finance Bank, Pivo Technology Limited, Renmoney Microfinance Bank Limited, Carbon Microfinance Bank Limited, Creditwave Finance Limited, among others.

 

Loans without the FCCPC’s approval will be removed from Play Store by Google and unavailable for download. In November, Google Play announced updates to its Developer Program Policy, which mandated that digital money lenders in Nigeria, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Kenya must conform to regulatory rules.

 

 

 This was expected to come into force from January 31, 2023. In March, Google took down hundreds of unapproved loan apps from the Play Store in Kenya according to a report on TechCrunch.

 

In February 2023, the Nigeria Data Protection Bureau revealed that a national committee, made up of federal agencies, was working in tandem to clip the activities of illegal loan apps in the country.