Loan apps have earned notoriety for harassing defaulting customers and the Nigerian government is in talks with Google to prevent remove loan apps without regulatory approval from play store.
Ever so often, when Nigerians who take loans from these apps default on their repayments, these loan apps harass, threaten and use their data against them.
To check this development before it leads to suicide, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has promised to delist loan applications harassing customers.
It also said it would contact Google to remove such apps from the Play Store.
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The FCCPC has earlier instructed these apps to register for full or conditional approval from the commission in a bid to regulate their activities.
To highlight this position of the government, Google ahs also said it would not allow loan apps to function on its store without regulatory approval.
Early in the year, Google said it would prevent loan apps from accessing photos and contacts of customers from May 31, 2023.
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In a conversation with The Punch, the Chief Executive Officer of FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera, said the commission was ready to shut them down permanently.
Apps Not On Google
He said: “We have read the stories, but we have to investigate to make sure that the evidence truly exists.
“The consequence of this, they know it, is that if any of these defamatory messages or harassments goes out again, they will be delisted
“We will ask Google to take them down permanently.
“But we can’t take that kind of step without knowing for sure because what we’ve found is that the loan apps that are still doing those things are not on Google.
“Most of the complaints we’ve received about these things show that the companies are not on our list/ Google.
“They are the ones who are using WhatsApp, APK, and other softer, below-the-radar channels to engage consumers”.
