Close Menu
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    Trending
    • Coalition Wobbles: ADC Faces Uncertainty Without Atiku, Obi’s Commitment
    • Nigeria: Why Brazil. Yes, Brazil – By Sunday Dare
    • Who Spoke, Who Stayed Silent?: 48 Reps, 5 Senators Recorded Zero Contributions In One Year, Report Reveals
    • ‘Kauyawa’ And ‘Ajo’ Wedding Parties Now Forbidden’, Taraba Muslim Leaders Announce Ban
    • Nigerian Air Force Kills 35 ISWAP Fighters In Precision Strikes Near Cameroon Border
    • Obasanjo, Malema, Over 20,000 Lawyers Converge On Enugu For 2025 NBA Conference
    • Nigeria Is Full Of Single Girls – By Funke Egbemode
    • Super Eagles Striker, Victor Boniface’s AC Milan Transfer Stalls Over Fresh Knee Injury Concerns
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    NEWS POINT NIGERIANEWS POINT NIGERIA
    UBA 720X90
    • HOME
    • NEWS

      Coalition Wobbles: ADC Faces Uncertainty Without Atiku, Obi’s Commitment

      August 24, 2025

      Who Spoke, Who Stayed Silent?: 48 Reps, 5 Senators Recorded Zero Contributions In One Year, Report Reveals

      August 24, 2025

      ‘Kauyawa’ And ‘Ajo’ Wedding Parties Now Forbidden’, Taraba Muslim Leaders Announce Ban

      August 24, 2025

      Nigerian Air Force Kills 35 ISWAP Fighters In Precision Strikes Near Cameroon Border

      August 24, 2025

      Obasanjo, Malema, Over 20,000 Lawyers Converge On Enugu For 2025 NBA Conference

      August 24, 2025
    • COLUMN

      Nigeria Is Full Of Single Girls – By Funke Egbemode

      August 24, 2025

      Bye Elections And The Reality Check – By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah

      August 23, 2025

      Putin As The President’s Medicine – By Azu Ishiekwene

      August 22, 2025

      AI As The New Indolence, That Netanyahu Call, Salah’s Tweet And Our Kwam Mentality (1) – By Dr Hassan Gimba

      August 18, 2025

      From KWAM 1 To KWAM 2: How Not To Run A Nation – By Kazeem Akintunde

      August 18, 2025
    • EDUCATION

      FG Names Prof. Adamu Acting Vice-Chancellor To Steer UniAbuja For Three Months

      August 9, 2025

      13 Countries Offering Free Or Low-Cost PhD Programmes For Non-Citizens

      January 25, 2025

      NECO: Abia, Imo Top Performing States In Two Years, Katsina, Zamfara Come Last

      October 3, 2024

      NBTE Accredits 17 Programmes At Federal Polytechnic Kabo

      August 20, 2024

      15 Most Expensive Universities In Nigeria

      May 19, 2024
    • INTERNATIONAL

      Israeli Attacks Kill 63 As Troops Push Deeper Into Gaza City

      August 24, 2025

      Russia Claims More Ukraine Land As Hopes For Peace Agreement Fade

      August 24, 2025

      Dutch Prime Minister, Cabinet Members Resign Over EU’s Refusal To Sanction Israel On Gaza Genocide

      August 23, 2025

      Tension As North Korea Accuses South Korean Troops Of Firing Warning Shots Near Border

      August 23, 2025

      Israeli’s Netanyahu Approves Gaza City Seizure Despite Ceasefire Talks

      August 22, 2025
    • JUDICIARY

      FULL LIST: Judicial Council Recommends Appointment Of 11 Supreme Court Justices

      December 6, 2023

      Supreme Court: Judicial Council Screens 22 Nominees, Candidates Face DSS, Others

      November 29, 2023

      FULL LIST: Judicial Commission Nominates 22 Justices For Elevation To Supreme Court

      November 16, 2023

      Seven Key Issues Resolved By Seven Supreme Court Judges

      October 26, 2023

      FULL LIST: CJN To Swear In Falana’s Wife, 57 Others As SANs November 27

      October 12, 2023
    • POLITICS

      What Peter Obi May Lose If He Joins Coalition As VP Candidate

      May 25, 2025

      Atiku Moves To Unseat Wike’s Damagum As PDP Chairman, Backs Suswam As Replacement

      April 15, 2024

      Edo’s Senator Matthew Uroghide, Others Defect To APC

      April 13, 2024

      Finally, Wike Opens Up On Rift With Peter Odili

      April 2, 2024

      El-Rufa’i’s Debt Burden: APC Suspends Women Leader For Criticising Kaduna Gov

      March 31, 2024
    • SPORTS

      Super Eagles Striker, Victor Boniface’s AC Milan Transfer Stalls Over Fresh Knee Injury Concerns

      August 24, 2025

      Tottenham Emerge Favourites As Five English Clubs Chase Nigeria’s Forward, Ademola Lookman

      August 24, 2025

      Osimhen, Ndidi, Iwobi Return As Coach Chelle Names Squad For Crucial World Cup Qualifiers

      August 23, 2025

      Taribo West Slams NFF, Lagos FA For Abandoning Late Goalkeeper Peter Rufai’s Family

      August 23, 2025

      Former Super Eagles Forward, Brown Ideye Retires From Football At 36

      August 22, 2025
    • MORE
      • AFRICA
      • ANALYSIS
      • BUSINESS
      • ENTERTAINMENT
      • FEATURED
      • LENS SPEAK
      • INFO – TECH
      • INTERVIEW
      • NIGERIA DECIDES
      • OPINION
      • Personality Profile
      • Picture of the month
      • Science
      • Special Project
      • Videos
      • Weekend Sports
    NEWS POINT NIGERIANEWS POINT NIGERIA
    UBA 720X90
    Home - The Shylocks Within

    The Shylocks Within

    By Hassan GimbaJuly 24, 2023
    Gimba

    LAST week, the federal government, through the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), banned two loan app banks, permanently removing them from Google Play Store and initiating the process of deleting their respective apps.

    The culprits, Sycamore Integrated Solutions Limited and Orange Loan and Purple Credit Limited, along with their apps, Getloan and Camelloan, were permanently delisted due to their illicit practices and for their harassment of Nigerians.

    They were also accused of duplicity and illegal activities when they were discovered to be using APKs to attract borrowers, which is both illegal and unregulated.

    TAZKIYAH UNIVERSITY

    The truth is that loan apps have taken over our cyberspace and instead of bringing succour to the people – as they want all to believe – they steal the peace in homes and communities.

    Perhaps most, if not all, of the about a hundred loan apps threatening not to give us a breathing space may be owned by the same Chinese people. The moment you just view any of them online, a plethora of others inundate your screen, and there are a lot. You have XCROSS, Jumia app, Easy-buy, Palm Credit, Palm Pay, Easy Cash, Loan Book, etc. Some have turned into mushroom microfinance banks with offices and mean staff. They christen them “Debt Collectors”.

    UBA

    With no collateral, they promise you instant cash, but they get access to all the relevant information from your phone. This allows them to know much about you and have access to your contacts, granting them a mighty stranglehold on your jugular.

    Many people, a good number knowing they had no means of paying back, get trapped in a vicious cycle where they continue obtaining such easy loans to pay an earlier loan from another loan giver. And so the cycle goes on.

    Happy Birthday

    In a country where the masses do not have any form of social security or insurance coverage, some loans go into issues like feeding the family, seeking medical care, paying school fees for kids and such stuff.

    However, the problem is that these Shylock loan givers have nasty ways of collecting their monies from defaulters. Some are extremely embarrassing that can lead to the clients losing face in the community while they crudely blackmail their victims. Whatever they can do to have their pound of flesh is fair game to them.

    Nigerian TAX Reform - Federal Goverment

    Mrs Adeogun, a former member of staff of one of these loan sharks, disclosed that an “unprecedented embarrassment” befalls anyone who fails to pay back such borrowed monies on time. She said, “If you refuse to pay them back at the set date, you will be treated like trash. They will embarrass you in a big way, in a manner that your children will forever be ashamed of. I know what I am saying; I used to be a member.”

    I have received several text messages from these debtors telling me to “talk to” some people in my contact list to pay them. These people may not be close to me in any way, but an SMS will come telling me that those people have made me their guarantor when collecting the loan and that I should press them to pay.

    Another most embarrassing and libellous one came to me regarding a lady who was a neighbour. They sent me a message that she was diagnosed with HIV but she had run away from a medical facility to infect people and that she should be reported when seen.

    National Orientation Agency Page UP
    National Orientation Agency - Down

    She told me it was them and that they cooked that up to get at her for a loan she took from them.

    Her case is even minor compared to those who lost their lives because of the pressure from these Shylocks who must always get their pound of flesh if not more.

    In July 2019, 41-year-old Shakirat Rasheed, in Apete, a suburb of Ibadan, rather than face the embarrassment from such people, committed suicide after a friend she stood as surety for fled with the loan.

    This year, too, has witnessed some deaths because debtors prefer to take that extreme route rather than face harassment from such unscrupulous loan sharks.

    One woman simply identified as Mama Dada burnt herself in her rented apartment over her inability to repay a loan of ₦70,000 she took from one of such microfinance banks, popularly known as LAPO.

    LAPO is well-known for lending money to traders and other small-business owners with specific repayment plans.

    The woman sent her little son to buy petrol, discharged him on another errand, locked the door and set herself ablaze. She was burnt beyond recognition as the entire building in Abeokuta’s Oke-Keesi, Itoko area, was destroyed in the process.

    Even management staff are not exempt; in June this year, the manager of SEAP Microfinance Bank in Saki, Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State, Mr Sola Ogungbe, also committed suicide over loan facilities he granted to some of his customers which they failed to repay.

    Families of debtors, too, sometimes suffer collateral damage. Mrs Vivian Omo died during an encounter with four officials of one Zefa Microfinance Bank, Ifo, Ogun State.

    On May 10 this year, the bank, situated at Abule Ijoko Lemode area of Ifo Local Government of the state, visited the victim’s house in search of her husband, who was said to be their debtor.

    The bank’s enforcers, Badmus Olalekan, Ajibade Oludare, Eniola Aduragbemi and Femi Oloko, had gone there to request the money borrowed by the man, but they were told by the deceased that her husband was not at home. The debt collectors were not buying it, so they tried to take away some electronics, but the woman resisted.

    While the deceased was struggling with the bank’s staffers, one of them pushed her and she fell to the ground and passed out. At the hospital, the doctor on duty confirmed her dead.

    With the removal of fuel subsidies and the attendant pressure on pockets and purses, expect more and more Nigerians to go a-borrowing. And a-sorrowing, of course.

    But who will save them from these Shylocks?

    Dr Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime. His syndicated column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Mondays.

    Hassan Gimba’s Column Loan Apps
    Share. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp LinkedIn Telegram Email

    Related Posts

    Nigeria Is Full Of Single Girls – By Funke Egbemode

    August 24, 2025

    Bye Elections And The Reality Check – By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah

    August 23, 2025

    Putin As The President’s Medicine – By Azu Ishiekwene

    August 22, 2025

    AI As The New Indolence, That Netanyahu Call, Salah’s Tweet And Our Kwam Mentality (1) – By Dr Hassan Gimba

    August 18, 2025
    Add A Comment
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Latest Posts

    Coalition Wobbles: ADC Faces Uncertainty Without Atiku, Obi’s Commitment

    August 24, 2025

    Nigeria: Why Brazil. Yes, Brazil – By Sunday Dare

    August 24, 2025

    Who Spoke, Who Stayed Silent?: 48 Reps, 5 Senators Recorded Zero Contributions In One Year, Report Reveals

    August 24, 2025

    ‘Kauyawa’ And ‘Ajo’ Wedding Parties Now Forbidden’, Taraba Muslim Leaders Announce Ban

    August 24, 2025

    Nigerian Air Force Kills 35 ISWAP Fighters In Precision Strikes Near Cameroon Border

    August 24, 2025
    Advertisement
    WIDGET ADS
    News Point NG
    © 2025 NEWS POINT NIGERIA Developed by ENGRMKS & CO.
    • Home
    • About us
    • Disclaimer
    • Our Advert Rates
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

    Join Us On WhatsApp