Akiba Stories is a series that explores the worst and best money experiences real Nigerians have made, and the lessons they learnt from it.
For this week's episode on Akiba Stories, we spoke to a 24-year-old NYSC Corp Member who was defamed by a loan app in her university days. She shares her experience using loan apps and how the defamation affected her and her family's reputation.
Could you tell me about where it started?
In September 2022, I borrowed money from a loan app to resolve some school expenses cos I had spent my school fees and final year allowances on a new phone. Yes, I was very financially irresponsible as a student and I believed one way or another, things would sort themselves out. Obviously, I couldn't sort it out within the deadline I had, so I borrowed from some loan apps, then months later, they started spreading lies about me to my contacts when I couldn't meet the deadline.
How much did you loan from the apps?
50,000 from one and 10,000 from another, I needed 60k in total. I had paid off the app I took 10,000 from before the deadline, but I couldn't pay the other app due to a delay in receiving the money I was expecting. They started threatening me a day before the deadline, and I requested an extension. They agreed on the condition that I pay an extra 10,000 on the balance plus initial interest, and I agreed.
Wait, how much was the initial interest, and how much were you asked to pay in total?
I borrowed 50,000 with a 50% interest in 3 months, so I was to pay 100,000 back plus the additional delay cost of 10,000 so 110,000 in total
Wow.
Yes. On the evening of the deadline, they still went ahead to send out defamatory messages to my contacts, even though I was still picking their calls and responding to their messages. They sent out messages claiming that my family [name withheld for privacy] was a criminal group, and I was the leader.
I'm sorry about this. How did this affect you?
The defamation had a significant impact on my family and my work. My dad and mom called me all the way from Delta State to ask about it. My aunts called, I had my friends in uni calling, someone even brought it to my class group chat, raising concerns. People from home, school, church, everywhere were calling me, I was beyond embarrassed. I switched off my phone for two days, I don't think I had ever been that embarrassed in my life. The incident even caused a rift between my dad and I; he thinks I tarnished the image of the family. Even my sister in the UK called me about it. I tried to explain to them that I wasn't in any major financial debt, and it was just an urgent need I thought I could solve on my own.
I also had a business and some customers, and they are on my contact list. When they received the defamatory messages, some of them called to ask me about it, and many of them were hesitant to patronize me.
What business were you into?
I used to do a China preorder business. I helped students order items from China and deliver when it gets to Nigeria. Some of my customers couldn't trust me and asked for refunds. These are transactions that were worth about 100,000.
The other businesses who I used to preorder for were also scared of dealing with me because they were worried about being associated with a criminal. I'm rarely at home because I'm always in the middle of class and tutorials, but after it happened, I didn't go to class for almost two months. Even my pastor called me and preached about it in church [laughs].
How were you able to deal with everything?
After the messages started going round, I had to compose another message and send it around to warn my friends and clients of the dubious message being sent around about me.
I explained that I had mistakenly revealed my identity to scammers, and they had been reaching out to my contacts to spread false information about me.
Did that work?
It helped me recover some of my customers, but not a lot of them. If I had 50, the process helped me recover only 6 of them back.
Has the loan app stopped reaching out?
Yes, but I had to threaten them too. I reached out to them and demanded legal proof of their operations and asked them to show me where their office is so we could settle the matter face to face. It was either that or they sent a rejoinder to let them know that the information they sent earlier was not true.
They eventually stopped calling and reaching out to people. If they want the balance now, I have it, but they will have to follow due processes.
Any improvement to business since then?
Well, no. I'm no longer doing that business. I couldn't really continue after what happened, I just stopped and now I serve in a law firm.
What did you learn from that experience?
When I started taking loans, I also introduced a lot of people to it. So when this thing happened, I immediately reached out to those people to apologize for introducing them to loan apps and encouraged them to stop. I also gave them tips on how to manage the threats if they come their way.
Since then, I have stopped using loan apps completely. I don't go near them again. In fact, I know someone who took his own life because he was being defamed by loan apps, and he wasn't even owing them up to 20,000. It's a very serious issue. Now, I'm sharing my story to prevent more people from having the same experience as me.
That's great. Thank you for speaking to us.
Thank you for having me.
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