The economic crisis in the country has left a lot of Nigerians frustrated, hopeless and helpless. As a result, many microfinance and money lending firms have emerged to take advantage of the situation. While some of them offer genuine financial assistance with considerable interest rates and repayment methods, others are just like preys that milk their ‘victims’ dry. One of such is Soko Loan (a subsidiary of Soko Lending Company Limited), a money lending company that has been scamming hundreds of Nigerians to make a fortune for itself. Simply put; Soko Loan literally gives you a cap and callously beheads you afterwards.
Firstly, exclusive investigation by Newscarte.com.ng reveals that Soko Loan offers the worst loan package to customers, compared to its contemporaries. The company would not only give you a maximum of 10 days to repay its loan, after which an arbitrary daily interest of about N200 will be added for late repayment.
For a loan of N5,000 for instance, which is to be paid back within 10 days, Soko Loan charges N2,102 as interest (for just 10 days), meaning that the customer will repay the sum of N7,102. And from the 11th day, additional daily interest of about N200 is added to the fee until the customer pays back. Other online money lending firms offer far better and reasonable package.
And as if that is not enough, Soko Loan will still go ahead to threaten defaulters with anti-graft agencies, and also send stinker messages to the phone contacts of the defaulter. The mobile App of Soko Loan allows company access to the borrower’s phone contacts.
“For a loan of N14,000, I ended up being debited of N21,546 by Soko Loan, after they had tried everything to drag my integrity in the mud by sending bulk text messages to all my phone contacts that I have been declared wanted by an anti-graft agency. Other money lending firms are more reasonable with their approach,” a customer who vowed never to patronize Soko Loan again recalls in a chat with Newscarte.com.ng.
Newscarte.com.ng further gathered that many times, Soko Loan makes dubious direct deductions from customers’ bank accounts, having being in possession of the client’s debit card details. “Sometimes, they will also call you on phone and threaten you to pay directly into a particular bank account, after which they will claim it was a ‘ghost worker’ that made the call. Honestly, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other relevant agencies need to urgently investigate the activities of Soko Loan and curb them from scamming more people,” another victim of the money lending firm told our Correspondent.
