The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has published a list of 173 companies that sailed through its approval processes to operate as digital money lenders, also known as loan app vendors, in the country.
The announcement of the successful firms by the commission came barely after the registration timeline, which closed last Monday, 27th March, 2023.
The commission reported that out of the 173 companies approved for digital payment operations in the country, 119 were given full approval while 54 others were granted conditional approval as they needed to fulfill other requirements before they can be granted full approval.
With the closure of the registration process, Google will also remove all unapproved or unregistered loan apps in the country from the Play Store. Before now, Google had earlier issued an update to all loan apps in Nigeria asking them to provide evidence of approval by the regulatory authorities or be delisted from the Play Store platform.
It would be recalled that the FCCPC had earlier pointed out that the ‘Limited Interim Regulatory/Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending 2022’ was issued in collaboration with the Joint Tax Force (JTF) to promote fair, transparent, and beneficial alternative lending opportunities for Nigerians and other residents in the country.
Similarly, the commission maintained that the regulatory initiative was informed by the need to tackle the menace of illegal loan app operators in the country as complaints by members of the public over rights abuses and other unethical practices were rising on daily basis.
