Babatunde Irukera: FCCPC Has Not Lost Any Case Since Inception in 2018

The Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Babatunde Irukera said the commission has had five years of a zero loss record in judicial processes.

 Irukera said this while speaking on the performance of the FCCPC over the years. He said also the strategy to delist loan applications found harassing customers has been significant reduction and those left have met the stated ethical requirements.

He said “Because I am a regulator, I welcome judicial challenges to what we do. The one thing I am very strict about is that we would stretch the law to its maximum limit and elasticity but we would not step one inch beyond the law.

“We are confident and we welcome the judicial challenge. For instance, I go to court myself and I might say in the almost five years of the FCCPC, we have a pretty good run. we have a zero loss from the judicial process”.

He also said once a loan app has been delisted due to consumers harassment, there would not be a second chance. He also said genuine people in need of the loans should not be made to suffer frustrations to get loans.

“We would make sure that any app that is on google but defames consumers would not have the opportunity to do legal business in Nigeria anymore.

“You cannot because there is a high rate of default, begin to engage inappropriate ways of recovering loans. People who truly have a problem and those who don’t fail to make a payment should not be subjected to the inconvenience of frustrations or harassments that accompanies these defamatory messages”. He said

The FCCPC Boss also spoke on involving the use of AI to boost the processes involved in money lending by these online banks. 

“AI is an emerging space that regulators are trying to put their hands around, both from the competition standpoint and the consumer protection stand point. We welcome the use of technology that promotes efficiency and some level of precision however, even in the use of AI, any technology that gives you inappropriate access to people’s privacy or gives data controllers some level of control or access, we would challenge that”.

He also stated that there is a platform dedicated where reports on the conducts of these online banks can be tabled at lenderstaskforce@thefccpc.gov.ng. He also said the public can also make use of the complaint platform on the commission’s website.

Chioma Kalu

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