The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (“FCCPC”) has announced its decision to begin to receive applications for registration of new digital money lending companies in Nigeria. On August 18, 2022, the FCCPC, as part of its Joint Regulatory and Enforcement Task Force (“JRETF”), introduced a Limited Interim Regulatory/Registration Framework and Guidelines for Digital Lending, 2022 (“Digital Lending Guidelines”) as well as digital lending company registration procedure.
The Digital Lending Guidelines was introduced to address complaints of privacy rights violations and other illegal debt recovery practices by some digital money lenders in Nigeria. By virtue of the Digital Lending Guidelines, it became mandatory for all online money lenders to register with the FCCPC and obtain its approval without which the digital lenders would be unable to do business in Nigeria, enjoy the services of commercial banks or payments gateway companies or online platforms like Google Playstore, or Facebook, etc.
The FCCPC fixed 14th November 2022 as the initial deadline for registration of all existing digital lending companies. The deadline was later extended to 31st of January 2023 and, subsequently, 27th of March 2023. Failure to obtain the FCCPC approval led to the blocking of the defaulting lenders’ bank accounts, disconnection of many digital lenders from payment platforms or deletion of their mobile applications from Google Playstore.
The FCCPC stopped to accept applications from existing businesses, effective from 28th of March 2023. However, on 9th June 2023, the FCCPC announced its decision to resume the processing of applications for digital lenders registration in view of a growing list of new digital lending companies seeking to do business in Nigeria.
All new digital lending companies can now apply to the FCCPC for approval. Also, any existing company with cogent reasons for not registering before the deadline of 27th March 2023 can also apply to the FCCPC for late registration.
YOU CAN READ MORE BELOW ON HOW TO REGISTER A DIGITAL LENDING COMPANY WITH THE FCCPC:
ALSO, YOU CAN READ MORE BELOW ON HOW TO SET UP A DIGITAL LENDING COMPANY IN NIGERIA:
