The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says the joint committee tackling violation of consumer rights in the money-lending industry will shut down illegal businesses at the commencement of its enforcement.
Mr Babatunde Irukera, Chief Executive Officer of FCCPC who disclosed this on Sunday in Abuja, said the enforcement would commence in a matter of weeks.
The joint committee is made up of representatives from FCCPC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Other agencies in the committee are the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
According to the FCCPC boss, the committee will also be writing interim regulations which money lending companies must comply with.
“The joint committee is meeting and agreeing on how to proceed. I can say that two of the entities of the joint committee will be going to the field and doing enforcement work very shortly.
“They will be closing down businesses and engaging App stores to shut down certain applications that are infringing and abusive.
“We are also going to be writing interim regulations and some basic information for all these money lenders to provide information so that people will know who they are.
“Some of them are just Apps that we do not even know who the promoters are.
“So, we are going to provide certain frameworks for them to comply with before doing business.”
On the increasing number of consumer complaints in insurance, the FCCPC boss said the Commission had made progress to facilitate a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).
“We anticipate that, as we conclude that MoU early next year, we will have more industry-wide interventions in that space.
“We get a lot more complaints about the insured who have paid their premium and are not being settled; so, we are engaging NAICOM on that,” Irukera said.
