an app, through which customers can access micro loans and other financial services. In order to obtain such a loan, most often, the requirements are the bank verification number, a regulated identity card, date of birth, phone number, information on the ATM card, place of work and likely monthly income, among others. This has raised concerns over the security of these information in this day and age when hacking is becoming a regular occurrence. It also raises questions about the exorbitant interest rates that are being charged on these loans which go as high as 20 to 30 per cent. The loans that can be obtained vary between ₦1,000 and ₦1 million and above, while the maturity periods range from seven days to one month.
Although a significant number of fintech banks were operating in Nigeria before the COVID-19 pandemic, most of them had surfaced during the global health crisis, offering loans to people who were struggling to meet their daily financial obligations owing to loss of income.
An investigation conducted by Leadership News found that most of these firms devised unpleasant means of recovering funds from defaulters, sometimes sending messages about the person’s loan obligations to those on his phone contacts. Such measures are taken based on the belief that the funds could be recovered by putting the defaulters to shame, despite the fact that some of them are suffering from the trauma caused by the shame.
“This app is a very bad app. I will advise you not to collect money from them. Even after repaying your loans, they will kept on calling and harassing you for the loans you have already paid,” Modinat Adelani, a user of the Cashsea Loan App, told Leadership. “The major discouraging part is extracting users’ information, sending unsolicited messages and calls to their contacts and stressing the life out of a customer with calls and text messages even when the repayment date has not even elapsed,” Dare Ogundeji, who was a customer of KashKash told the news agency.
