Nigeria protecting citizens from predatory loan apps while planning to tie healthcare to digital identity will test whether digitisation expands access or creates new barriers.
Development Diaries reports that the Federal High Court in Lagos recently upheld the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission’s (FCCPC) regulations governing digital lending, clearing the way for the commission to resume action against loan apps accused of privacy violations, cyberbullying and abusive debt recovery practices.
The judgment followed a lawsuit by the Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Nigeria (WASPAN) seeking to stop the FCCPC from enforcing the regulations.
Predatory loan apps have repeatedly been accused of accessing borrowers’ phone contacts without permission before sending threatening messages to family members, employers and friends in an attempt to recover debts.
The court’s ruling now gives the FCCPC another opportunity to stop those practices.
While regulators are trying to protect Nigerians from one digital risk, government is planning to integrate digital identity into healthcare as part of its push towards universal health coverage by 2030.
Digital identity can improve service delivery, reduce fraud and simplify access to healthcare, but the issue is whether that same system could end up excluding millions of Nigerians who still lack recognised digital identities.
That places Nigeria’s digital transformation at a crossroads.
On one side, digital technology is exposing citizens to privacy abuse and financial exploitation. On the other, poor implementation could allow digital identity to become a gatekeeper for healthcare instead of a tool that expands access.
Responsibility, therefore, stretches across several institutions, including the FCCPC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), which are responsible for ensuring digital lenders comply with consumer protection standards, while the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Health Insurance Authority, and the National Identity Management Commission must ensure digital identity strengthens healthcare access rather than limiting it.
Nigeria’s Data Protection Act 2023 prohibits the unlawful collection and processing of personal data, making the reported practices of contact-harvesting loan apps more than unethical; they also raise legal questions.
At the same time, the government’s commitment to universal health coverage becomes difficult to fulfil if healthcare depends on documentation that many poor Nigerians still do not possess.
Women and low-income borrowers are often the primary targets of digital lenders because public shaming works best against people whose livelihoods depend heavily on social reputation.
Rural communities, persons with disabilities and undocumented Nigerians could face a different form of exclusion if healthcare increasingly depends on digital identity without practical alternatives.
Borrowers should use only lenders approved by the FCCPC and report harassment, unlawful access to phone contacts and other privacy violations to both the FCCPC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
Health advocates should also insist that digital identity never becomes the only pathway to healthcare enrolment, particularly for emergency and primary care.
The FCCPC should continue to publish sanctions against offending digital lenders while removing non-compliant platforms from operation.
The National Health Insurance Authority should equally guarantee that no Nigerian is denied healthcare simply because a digital identity has yet to be issued.
Nigeria’s digital future will be judged by whether technology protects the people it was introduced to serve.
