Many Nigerians resort to taking loans from online platforms these days. Since no collateral is involved, they quickly grab the opportunity. Whereas they ought not to consider this approach.
One may need loans to build one’s businesses, but if one needs to take loans, it shouldn’t be as low as one hundred thousand naira or below. The aftermaths of taking loans from the internet are enormous.
Mr. Akin Alabi, a member of the House of Representatives, recently sponsored a bill against the approach being used by the online loan platforms to retrieve their money from their customers.
Most of the time, the platforms choose to defame, blackmail, deface and threaten the family and friends of their defaulters. This is worrisome. They might have some other ways of getting the money back, but this particular method is condemnable.
The platforms would send a message or messages to the contacts of the defaulters. Then unprintable names would be used to describe the person just because of loan that is as low as one hundred thousand naira.
They will call the customers “fraudster”, “liar” and they will ask the recipients of their messages to avoid the customers for owing them a sum of undisclosed money.
Persons are expected to pay the loans on time. But some circumstances may warrant a delay and the online platforms won’t listen to this. Theirs is to receive their money back.
Of course, most of the platforms retract their messages after the person has refunded the money. Yet the damage would have been done. They even go to an extent of attaching the person’s picture.
It is true that one may go broke, but if one knows that refunding the loan may be difficult, it is better not to take the money from the online platforms so as to avoid embarrassment and harassment.
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