How Loan Sharks Originated in Nigeria
The emergence of urgent quick loan applications and immediate cash lending platforms in Nigeria as a means of obtaining emergency funds brought on by the depressing economic slump in the nation, the unemployment rate, and the ensuing poverty has altered the entire dynamics of borrowing. Poor and innocent Nigerians have been defrauded of their hard-earned money in the form of loan credit by faceless loan sharks that are housed on Google Play Store and others on Apple Store, some of which are controlled by fraudulent overseas shylocks.
How Are Nigerian Loan Sharks Defined?
A loan shark is a lender who works illegally and who gives credit loans at exorbitant interest rates with harsh terms of collection upon default, including sending threatening, humiliating, and libelous messages to you and the people on your phone contact list. Therefore, loan sharks are essentially illicit loan platforms and apps that operate unlawfully.
How Nigerian loan sharks threaten, humiliate, and blackmail your relatives, friends, and contact information
Many borrowers have spoken out against the ways in which these illicit lending platforms, often known as loan sharks, threaten and blackmail their clients while treating them rudely and like they don’t matter in Nigeria and other countries. At the slightest loan default, some lenders even go so far as to label their clients and borrowers as “insane,” “dumb,” “criminals,” and other disparaging terms.
How To Spot Loan Sharks In Nigeria And Other Countries
One of the methods used by loan sharks in Nigeria is to send threatening, libelous, and blackmailing messages to their clients’ families, friends, and contacts, as well as to blatantly and unjustifiably invade their data privacy.
The majority of these loan app employees are unethical communicators since they speak to consumers in a dehumanizing manner, call, send slanderous messages to their contact list, and refer to them as “criminals.” In morally upright societies like Nigeria, this should be categorically denounced and declared immoral and undesirable.
10 Ways For Nigerians To Spot Loan Sharks
- Gaining access to the contact’s phone number and image.
- Misuse of mobile photos and contact information.
- Sending threatening and libelous messages to consumers and the people on their contact List while invading their privacy with their data.
- Penalties and interest rates are extremely high.
- Processing fees and/or security deposits are deducted before processing a loan.
- Interest is deducted prior to loan disbursement.
- Customers are frequently threatened and harassed.
- Online bullying.
- Harsh and immoral methods of rehabilitation.
- Loan app staff members have used nasty and insulting language toward customers.
Seven red flags for loan sharks in Nigeria
– No record of prior repayments has been checked.
– Loan to clients for a duration of 7 days rather than the legally required minimum of 60 days
– Creating a sense of urgency and pressuring people to act right now
– Unknown or concealed fees or levies.
– Websites that are not secure, and in rare situations, no websites at all
– No real address was provided by the lender.
– They frequently lack social media accounts, phone numbers, and functional customer service.
List of Nigeria’s Top 22 Loan Sharks
The top 22 loan sharks in Nigeria are listed in the following thorough list.
Avoid any lending platform you see on the list at all costs if you want to live a long and happy life. Avoid them at all costs!
The Federal Government has prohibited some of them, and Google Play and Apple have prohibited others. Unfortunately, many of them are still operating clandestinely as of the time this report was being written, taking advantage of helpless and impoverished Nigerians in the name of immediate cash and internet lending.
Beware, don’t fall for any of the scandalous, dishonest loan sites listed below.
- LCredit
- 9credit
- CreditHall
- LionCash
- Nkash
- iCredit
- ForNaira
- Cashrain
- Xcredit
- ICoin
- PalmCredit
- CashLion
- GoCash
- Okash
- EasyCredit
- Ease Cash
- KashKash
- Speedy Choice
- FastMoney
- GetCash
- 9ja Cash
- Sokoloan
30 loan sharks and illegal loan apps operating in Nigeria have had their bank accounts frozen by the FG.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) claims to have seized at least 30 bank accounts in Nigeria that were being used by loan sharks, rogue lending platforms, and online lenders.
This was stated by Mr. Babatunde Irukera, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, on Tuesday in Abuja.
Irukera added that the Commission has worked with Google and Apple to remove from their stores some additional illicit loan apps and loan sharks operating in Nigeria, noting that specific procedures had to be followed.
“We only have a few details regarding the bank accounts that some of the loan companies used on the day we performed the raid.
“All the bank accounts that were given were instantly banned, but these businesses have several accounts under different names.
“We have identified an additional 30 accounts since the raid, and we have frozen them all. We will keep freezing accounts as we find them.
“I am confident that given the steps we have taken and the nature of our interaction with the lending companies, at least three of the big ones, their operations are changing as a result of our search or the account closure.
It may take some time, but the space is already transforming, he assured them.
Irukera urged for improved media collaboration to inform the public about their rights as consumers and further the goals of the FCCPC.
The FCCPC orders loan sharks and illegal loan applicants to stop compounding their customers’ interest while they are being investigated.
In the meantime, the Commission has also ordered Nigerian loan sharks and illegal loan applications to halt compounding interest and loan collection tactics while they are being investigated.
Irukera issued a statement warning that anyone who disobeys this order would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law (without option of administrative regulatory resolution).
Irukera claimed that the order does not apply to current borrowers who are repaying legal loans according to fair and reasonable terms and conditions, or to any changes to prior terms and conditions that are deemed burdensome, against the letter of the law, or otherwise inconsistent with general principles of openness and fairness.
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