9ja Cash loan app: When a lending application is criminalising its customers

The economic hardship in Nigeria is pushing many families and consumers to patronize quick loan apps for financial help in terms of borrowing to meet daily obligations. The loan apps have become sharks and terror on their customers.

Many of the loan apps are now now send defaming and threatening messages. to contacts of their customers who never were parties to the loan agreement, once there’s a suspicion of default. Some even before the loan repayment fall due, they start threatening families of customers who have collected loans. This is unethical

9ja Cash (Sokoloan) and data breach: When a loan app defames customers’ family as criminals

QUICK LOAN ARENA is compiling a list of all quick loan apps on Google Play Store that are invading the data privacy of their customers and sending blackmailing and threatening messages to their contacts whenever there is an alleged loan repayment default. Our second on the list is BorrowNow.

We understand this is in breach of their customers’ data privacy policy which the different loan apps vowed to adhere to during registration and hosting on Google Play Store. This is also required by local laws for any loan app or lending company operating in Nigeria.

In our list of blacklisted loan apps in Nigeria, 9ja Cash which we understand is owned and managed by Sokoloan Lending Company, is gaining the fourth entry. We advise all Nigerian loan seekers to boycott the services of 9ja Cash loan app and avoiud them like a plague.

See the defaming message below 9ja Cash sent to the people in the contact list of one of its customers. This is umethical and unacceptable.

This is what Google says about data collected by apps on its Play Store:

You must be transparent in how you handle user data (e.g. information collected from or about a user, including device information). That means disclosing your app’s access, collection, use and sharing of the data, and limiting the use of the data to the purposes disclosed. In addition, if your app handles personal and sensitive user data, please also refer to the additional requirements in the ‘personal and sensitive user data’ section below. These Google Play requirements are in addition to any requirements prescribed by applicable privacy and data protection laws (in your domiciles country).

Furthermore most of these loan apps have tenure ranging from 7- 14 days, this is in breach of Google Policy on loan apps hosted on its Play Store and contravenes local laws in Nigeria. Hear what Google has to say on loan tenure:

We do not allow apps that promote personal loans which require repayment in full in 60 days or less from the date the loan is issued (we refer to these as “short-term personal loans.

Most of the digital lending platform have turned into loan sharks terrorising Nigerians with extremely high interest rate sometimes as high as 50% for 7 days tenure and then later harassing the consumers and their contacts with malicious and defamatory words even when it’s still a day to the loan expiration. This is unethical.

Finally most of the loan apps now charge illegal loan service fees while feigning to have low interest. This is unaccptable.

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has also resolved to sanction and rein on loan apps and their lending platforms operating in Nigeria over these unethical practices of blackmailing and threatening consumers, their family members and their contact lists who were never parties to the loan agreement, whenever there is an alleged repayment default.

We appeal to all stakeholders to intensify the effort at cracking down on these defaming loan apps and ensure they comply with local laws or be shown the way out.