For many people who are familiar with the operations and activities of digital lending business in Nigeria, it won’t be difficiult to tell that once upon a time loan app called Sokoloan existed very powerfully on the Google Play Store and well known for its defamatory attitudes and other notorious lending activities such as sending threatening and shame messages to customers and their contact list even before expiration of loan.
The Notorious Sokoloan App
The new customers who have just started using loan apps and digital lenders for borrowing instant cash might not know about this terrible app but might have seen it listed on blogs and social media and asked: What happened to Sokoloan loan app?
The simple answer is that Sokoloan was removed from Google Play Store by Play protect, an Android security system that detects and protects users from privacy infringement following series of news reports by QUICK LOAN ARENA accusing Sokoloan of gross policy violation and unethical practices of threatening, blackmailing and maligning its customers and their contact list over alleged loan defaults.
What does Sokoloan do? How Do I Borrow from Sokoloan?
Sokoloan is a simple, entirely online lending platform that provides short-term loans in Nigeria to help cover unexpected expenses and urgent cash needs. Before it was banned, you can apply for a Sokoloan loan 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through their quick application process that lets you know your status within minutes.
What Company Owns Sokoloan?
Sokoloan is owned and managed by Soko Lending Company Ltd in Nigeria, which has also been accused of breach of data privacy of its customers and their contacts list. The company is owned by some Chinese allies who portray the attitude of defaming Nigerians barely days after their loan tenure without providing additional extension or grace period.
Is Sokoloan still functioning?
Google has banned Sokoloan from its Play Store after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) clampdown on their operation in Lagos State, following QUICK LOAN ARENA damning report against Sokoloan indicting the app of threatening customers and violating their rights to privacy
Is Sokoloan Loan App Legit? Or is it a fake loan app?
Sokoloan loan app is not legit or genuine by any means. The app is one of the most notorious fake loan apps in the quick loan industry, with the scammy habit of sending threatening and defamatory messages to customers and their contact list. When you take a loan with Sokoloan, it would start sending messages to your contacts, friends, and families threatening them to ask you to pay back your loan.
Sokoloan App Download
Sokoloan app has been banned by Nigerian government and removed from Google Play Store. As a result, there’s no other option for you to download the loan app from Play Store because of their serial infringement and abuse of customer data privacy characterised by their continuous defamatory habits. The app can no longer be downloaded.
Sokoloan Loan Defaulters
There are a lot of Sokoloan defaulters no doubt. Despite the fact that the loan company is in the habit of threatening its customers with curse and shame messages and exposing theor data to the social media, they were still some defaulters who completely refused to repay their loans within and during the expiration of their loan tenure.
Before you take out a loan from any app, ensure you have a means of repayment when the tenure runs and be commited to making the due loan capital and interest so you don’t become a loan defaulter and then have your name and BVN blacklisted with the Credit Bureau. This will prevent you from further access to future loan from any lending app or banking institution in Nigeria.
Sokoloan Contact Details, Whatsapp and Customer Care Numbers
Sokoloan always uses different WhatsApp numbers to defame their customers. However their customer service number is 0802 225 2106 and 0706 224 3452. Sokoloan email is admin@sokoloan.com
Where is Sokoloan office located?
Sokoloan office is located at No 9, Acme Road, Ikeja, Lagos state. However the company was no longer at the address as of time of this report. The new location of the company is now 5, Ogunsiji Close, Allen Avenue, Ikeja, about two kilometres and a six-minute drive from the former address. Its island office is located in Venus business hub, Plot 8, Providence Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos.
Why Was Sokoloan sanctioned?
In August 2021, Sokoloan was sanctioned N10million (10 million Naira only) fine for spying and invading its customers’ data privacy, and sending threatening and defamatory messages to its customers and their contact lists who were never parties to any loan agreement.
In the landmark enforcement, Nigerian regulatory agency, NITDA, the National Information Technology Development Agency imposed a fine of N10 million on the digital lending platform for spying, invading and compromising the data privacy of its customers.
What Are Customers’ Feedback and Reviews About Sokoloan loan App?
Sokoloan is the worst loan app that I have ever heard of – Mr David Fadiya
Mr David Fadiya, a leading Security Consultant in Lagos said: “Sokoloan is the parent company of GoCash loan app, (which is another app that sends threatening messages to its customers). Sokoloan don’t give second chance, they’re the worst loan house I have ever heard of. The bottom line is they threaten their staffs to sack them, sometimes they don’t pay they their salaries, that’s what one of their staff who is close to a friend told him. Most of these loan apps are owned by Chinese loan sharks who don’t care.”
What Other loan apps are owned by Sokoloan?
Our findings reveal that Soko Lending Company Ltd, owners of the now banned, Sokoloan, unknown to many, also owns GoCash, FastMoney, KashKash, AddMoney and GetCash that are defaming Nigerians daily.
“It’s when you want to make payment that you realize it’s Sokoloan you are paying to. And they threaten customers and their contact lists with blackmailing messages even for a day’s default,” one of their customers who pleaded anonymity told QUICK LOAN ARENA.
How did Nigerians and loan customers react to Sokoloan ban from Play Store?
When this medium exclusively broke the news of Sokoloan ban from Google Play yesterday, many Nigerians who spoke with VERY SERIAL expressed satisfaction and delight at the development. Some say it’s “good riddance to bad rubbish” and others say they want the lending platform prosecuted over its breach of its customers privacy. Some others told VERY SERIAL that the Federal government and regulatory authorities should wade into the micro-lending industry in Nigeria and instill sanity and enforce discipline.
What happened to Sokoloan loan app?
The simple answer is that Sokoloan was removed from Google Play Store by Play protect, an Android security system that detects and protects users from privacy infringement following series of gross policy violation and unethical practices of threatening, blackmailing and maligning its customers and their contact list over alleged loan defaults.
How Shame Messages From Sokoloan and LCredit Loan Apps Caused Me My Job
According to Olaoluwa Confidence who is married with children and who works with an energy company in Victoria Island, he had borrowed money from both Sokoloan and LCredit, both part of our list of illegal loan apps in Nigeria, which at one time or the other being banned and unbanned by Google Play Store.
He said he had needed the loan for a family emergency and was about to pay back when the online lending applications started sending threat and shame messages to all his contacts. He said all pleas to the loan apps fell unto deaf ears.
Olaoluwa adds that LCredit and Sokoloan didn’t stop at sending the threat messages to his family members, the apps extended the indecent act to his office workers and management staff.
He adds that it didn’t go down well with his company boss and he was consequently fired from work with a painful termination letter. He adds that the company’s management felt so strong about the shame messages they were copied in.
He says, “I was fired from my job because of Sokoloan and LCredit apps threat and shame messages to my contacts. My boss and other members of executives on my contact list received the defamatory messages and that was the end of the job for me. But we move…”
Sokoloan app pronounces customer dead, sends obituaries to family, contacts
Sokoloan, a notorious loan app, reportedly declared one of its customers dead over failure to repay a loan on the due date. The customer identified as Chinedu Azuwuike made this known via his verified Facebook profile.
Azuwuike had shared a picture of his “obituary” allegedly sent out by the lending app identified as Sokoloan.
He wrote: “Pls imagine what this stupid Sokoloan lending app did. What a childish act and a very stupid thing. How can they do this to me? Just because of 5 days overdue days?
“I swear with my life, if I pay them, let this obituary be real.”
Azuwuike says he had defaulted in his repayment plan for five days and the next thing he saw was his obituary.
On a public group on Facebook, another customer of another digital lending app, Victoria Eyo Ekpo revealed she was also a victim and vowed not to repay the loan.
She said, “This is what Deloan (lending app) sent to me oooo. I will never pay. They called my mum and insulted her. May God help us.” (sic).
Ekpo added that she borrowed the sum of N15,000.
There have been concerns in the past about the activities of these digital lending apps and loan sharks and the lack of regulation of their activities.
There have been a major boom in the digial lending apps and quick loan platforms in Nigeria championed by financial technology companies, Fintechs. The Nigerian Government however may be on the way to limiting their activities to only those licensed and regulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Presently, most of the digital lending operators are not regulated by any government authority and they engage in activities ranging from savings to lending as well as micro-investments and digital currency trading.
How to Stop Sokoloan From Accessing Your Contacts
To stop Sokoloan loan app from accessing your phone contacts, do the following:
- Step 1: Go to Settings on your phone.
- Step 2: Open Apps under settings.
- Step 3: Click on Permissions.
- Step 4: Select Contacts under permissions.
- Step 5: Choose the loan app to disable and remove permissions.
How To Stop Loan Apps Like Sokoloan From Accessing Your Contacts on Android and iOS
To prevent loan apps like Sokoloan or LCredit from accessing your phone contacts and to stop scam online lending companies from sending messages to your contacts, do the following:
- Do not download any lending app on your phone.
- Do not approve or collect any loan from the loan apps if you ever downloaded anyone on your phone, (either mistakenly or inadvertently).
- Do not give permission on your phone for any loan app to access your contact list. That essentially means you cannot have access to collect their loans.
- And of course, do not collect any instant loan from a lending platform.
However, you can still stop a loan app from further accessing your phone contacts if you have already collected a loan from it. To do this, safely uninstall the app and do not patronize their services anymore. However, your previous contacts remain in their database if you ever collected a loan from them.
Go to settings in your android phone, and click on apps and notifications. Scroll down to app permission and deny them access to your contacts, sms, photo gallery, and storage on your phone, they won’t be able to reach out to your phone contacts anymore or post your pictures and details to social media. They would only have your number and have only you to deal with.
FCCPC and other regulatory agencies Crack down on Sokoloan and other similar loan apps.
Following QUICK LOAN ARENA Story last week, several regulatory and financial crime authorities such as EFCC, CBN, FCCPC and others vowed to crack down on loan apps and lending platforms that are in breach of their customers’ data privacy and also fond of sending defaming and threatening messages to them and their contacts.
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the report assured that it had commenced rights violation investigation into the money lending industry.
The enforcement and regulatory agencies expressed concern that the act was fast becoming a dominant and abusive practice targeting some of the most vulnerable in society.
“Continuing complaints about questionable repayment enforcement practices including public shaming and violations of privacy have led to significant and understandable consumer aggravation and dissatisfaction.
“Others are arbitrary, unjust, unreasonable, or exploitative interest rates and or loan balances calculations, harassment and failure of consumer feedback mechanisms, among others have caused consumer aggravation, the agencies have said in a joint statement on Monday,” the report said.
What happened to Sokoloan and 9Credit?
The notorious Sokoloan app was finally banned and taken down by the internet giant, Google from its Play Store for the second and final time, weeks after the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) clampdown on their operation in Lagos State. Also taken down from Play Store were 9Credit and some other illegal loan apps.
Last year November, QUICK LOAN ARENA reported how Sokoloan was booted out from Play Store following series of news reports, accusing the platform of unethical practices of threatening, blackmailing and maligning its customers over alleged loan defaults. However the fraudulent app found its way back to the network in mysterious ways.
Sokoloan which is owned and managed by Soko Lending Company Ltd in Nigeria has also been accused of breach of data privacy of its customers and their contacts list.
In August 2021, Sokoloan was sanctioned N10m fine for spying and invading its customers’ data privacy, and for sending threat messages to the customers and their contact lists who were never parties to any loan agreement.
Why Sokoloan, 9Credit Were Banned By Google Play Store
Our findings indicate that both Sokoloan and 9Credit were banned by Google Play Store over multiple policy violations of the network and also contravening Nigeria local lending laws which centre on abuse of customer data privacy, unethical loan recovery methods, public shaming of customers among other violations.
Sokoloan has been in the news severally in recent times for the bad reasons. Last year QUICK LOAN ARENA did an investigation that revealed how fake and illegal loan apps such as Sokoloan, 9credit, PalmCash, NCash, GotoCash, Cash Wallet, Rapid Naira, ForNaira and many other predatory online loan apps all hosted on Google Play Store have been scamming and predating poor and hapless Nigerians and compromising their data to the public for the most unjustifiable reasons.
Conclusion
Most of these loan apps have become loan sharks charging as much as 100% interest rate, and restricting repayment to not more than 7 days, with terrible unethical loan recovery methods. When it’s a day left for you to make repayment, these apps start sending warning and threatening messages to you and to all your contact list warning you to beware and make payment immediately or have yourself exposed as a fraudster to all your contacts.
Fortunately many of the fake apps such as Rapid Naira, ForNaira, GoToCash, BorrowNow etc were pulled down by Google and banned from it Play Store network a long time ago, following several damning report against them.
