Volume 1 , Issue 2 , PP: 31-38, 2023 | Cite this article as | XML | Html | PDF | Full Length Article
Emmanuel Utebor 1 * , Omidoyin 2 , Taiye Joshua 3
A healthy financial services sector remains critical for the sustenance of social and economic development of any nation, as it guarantees easy access to finance for developmental purposes. One of such ways of accessing finance is through lending from financial institutions, which are mainly the conventional banks, but the tide is now changing owing to the disruptive effect of Covid-19 pandemic. There became the need to leverage on innovative technology in the Nigerian financial sector to rapidly move from the analog-based financial services to a technologically driven financial sector where services are rendered faster, easier and more accessible to the overall benefit of customers, investors, businessmen and other stakeholders. The advent of Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lock downs during the period further exposed the vulnerability of the Nigerian financial sector as access to funding became a challenge to most investors and businesses. To address this unforeseen challenge, the ingenuity of technological innovations was further deployed giving rise to digital lending services (popularly known as loan apps), which hitherto were nonexistent in Nigeria prior to the emergence of Covid-19. Digital lending entails the method of applying, processing, and granting loans with the aid of digital channels where lenders place reliance on personal data of customers accessed online or provided by such customers, to make credit decisions, for the benefit of a customer. As digital lending service is no doubt laudable, it came with associated fresh challenges which included violation of customer’s privacy rights and data protection. The main focus of this paper, therefore, is to examine the concept and practice of digital lending in Nigeria, its legal framework and the challenges of customers data protection and privacy rights in Nigeria. The researchers will adopt the doctrinal legal research method wherein reliance will be placed on primary and secondary sources, and based on the findings, certain recommendations would be made.
Financial Sector , Covid-19 , Digital Lending , Data Protection , Privacy Rights
[1] AM Matwyshyn , ‘Material Vulnerabilities: Data Privacy, Corporate Information Security, and Securities Regulation’, (2005) (3) Berkeley Bus. Law Journal 129.
[2] www.collegevestudentloans.com accessed on 9th October, 2022 at 9:36am
[3] Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2004, LFN.
[4] Money Lenders Cap M7, Law of Lagos State of Nigeria.
[5] www.cbn.gov.ng accessed on 25th October, 2022 at 1:04pm.
[6] Best Grade Entre-Pot Ltd V Ecobank Nigeria Ltd Plc. (2022) LPELR 58282 (CA)
[7] Nigeria Announces lockdown of Major Cities, www.aljazeera.com/economy accessed on 26th October, 2022 at 10:47am
[8] Credit Reporting Act 2017, LFN
[9] www.nitda.gov.ng accessed on 27th October, 2022 at 3:29pm.
[10] The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, (As amended).
[11] 1979 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
[12] 1963 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
[13] F.R.N v Daniel (2011) LPELR-4152 (CA)
[14] Nwali v Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission (2014) LPELR-23682 (CA)
[15] Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency Act, 2007
[16] Nigeria Data Protection Regulation 2019.
[17] Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2020
[18] Child Rights Act, 2003
[19] Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act, 2018.
[20] www.vanguardngr.com accessed on 2nd April, 2022 at 4:50pm
[21] A. Odusote, Data Misuse, Data Theft and Data Protection in Nigeria: A Call for a more robust and effective legislation, (2021) (12) Beljing Law Review.
[22] Ibid
[23] Ibid
[24] Opcit
[25] Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Coy. V Selfridge Co. (1914) A.C 847
