The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has said President Bola Tinubu’s credit scheme will help close the gap and reduce the vulnerability of Nigerians to unethical digital loan companies.

The acting executive vice chairman of FCCPC, Dr Adamu Abdullahi, said this in an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday.

Dr Abdullahi, reacting to unethical practices by some unregistered digital money lenders towards their customers, said the scheme would grant Nigerians access to soft loans without collateral.

He stated that the scheme would also help reduce the rate at which Nigerians patronise unregistered loan applications prone to naming and shaming their character.

The acting executive vice chairman said that though the commission had registered some digital money lenders, many unregistered lenders had continued their unethical practices against customers.

“What is happening is that the availability of loans is not there in Nigeria, but you can see that this government, through its ‘Renewed Hope Agenda,’ came up with a credit scheme.

“It has now gone into effect, but it is only for government workers for now. It is going to address the gap that the apps were addressing before. So, once we have that kind of possibility in which a person can get a loan from a recognised institution, such as a bank, it will be a soft loan without collateral.

“The only collateral you will need is your National Identification Number (NIN), and once you have your NIN and Bank Verification Number (BVN), that means you are identified, and people know that you are the one that has taken this loan and they know how to get their loan back. When that gap is filled, these loan companies will either sit up and do the right thing or fizzle out of existence,’’ he said.

On the commission’s achievements in the past year, Dr Abdullahi said that it had begun investigations into some unfair practices and irregularities in the market.

“We frown against practices that are monopolistic; we frown against the abuse of dominant positions in the market. In the competition aspect, we found out that some companies are engaging in anti-competitive practices, which has led to a sanction against a major international company.

“Beyond the sanction, the aspect that is not well reported is that we have made them do some advocacy in the field of tobacco smoking for the young and under-aged. We have ongoing investigations into other major companies which we found are engaging in other anti-competition practices,’’ the acting executive vice chairman said.

Dr Abdullahi noted that advocacy was a major hindrance for the commission, adding that the FCCPC was planning to have a presence in all the 774 local government areas.

This, according to him, will be done through a Memorandum of Understanding with another government agency to educate people on their rights.

(NAN)