In late January, Habeeb Akinlotan (not real name), borrowed the sum of N10,000 from Deloan, a quick loan company, with a plan to pay back in two weeks, his expectation was cut short when the salary he was banking on was not paid on time.

“The moment our admin officer told us that it would take another two days before workers could get their salaries, I knew I was in trouble,” Akinlotan said in a chat with FIJ.

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“I immediately tried calling the number of the Deloan agent’s number I had with me, but she did not pick my call. I also sent a text message to the number but I did not receive any response. I wanted to beg them to give me two more days, but, in the end, I was not able to talk to her.”

On Thursday, a day after the repayment deadline, a message saying Akinlotan had contracted HIV was sent to all the contacts on his phone.

The message read:

This is to inform the general public that ****** with phone number ******0382 has tested positive to HIV/AIDS, and escaped from the Healthcare facility with the mind set of infecting the public. Kindly avoid her and contact the nearest police station or healthcare centre, so that she can be apprehended and taken back to the care centre. Public Health Nigeria. HIV/AIDS Department.

“The incident brought me a lot of shame to the point that I contemplated taking sniper and killing myself. All my loved ones, friends, and colleagues at work would not stop calling me because of the message,” the 37-year-old office assistant said.

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He went on to tell FIJ that his boss, who was also a recipient of the message, eventually sent him some money so he could make the repayment.

“When one of their agents eventually reached out to me yesterday, I told her I now had the money. I also told her that I would not make the repayment until I got another confirmation from all my contacts saying Deloan has apologised for the defamatory messages they had earlier sent, and that the claim that I am HIV positive is untrue,” said Akinlotan.

On November 15, 2021, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) issued a statement announcing the beginning of an investigation into rights violations in the money-lending industry.

This came after the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) fined Sokoloan, another moneylender, for breaching its customers’ data privacy, an action that clearly violates Article 2.2 of the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR), which bans illegal data sharing with third parties.

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Despite the fines and sanctions, the lending firms have continued to devise new means of harassing their debtors.

FIJ made several calls to the service line of Deloan, but they were not answered. A text message sent to the company was also not responded to.