November 11,2022

Olubunmi Olusegun, a resident of Ibadan, Oyo State, has accused Palmcredit, an online money lending company, of “imposing a N54,500 loan on her”.

Olusegun, who is a regular borrower from the company, told FIJ on Wednesday that she suddenly received N54,500 from the loan company on September 30 without any prior loan request from her.

After she checked her profile with the company, she also discovered that it was a loan that attracted a high interest rate.

“The initial interest rate on the sum was N14,880 and I was expected to pay it back on or before October 27,” Olusegun said.

According to the Ibadan resident, the interest rose to N21,114 after the repayment deadline

“Three different agents of the company sent threatening messages to me afterwards,” Olusegun said.

“They gave me the money on September 30 and I complained that I did not request for any loan on October 2.

“The deadline they gave me to pay the money back was exactly a month after disbursement

“Two to three days to the due date, they sent WhatsApp messages to me, reminding me of prompt repayment. On the supposed repayment deadline date, they called me again.”

She then said one of the agents told her the company had suffered a network glitch on the day she got the erroneous loan. The agent also asked her to repay just the loan amount disbursed and ignore the interests.

“The agent told me that their computer had issues and that I was not the only person that the issue happened to. She also said that if I could not pay the interest, I should just pay the N54,500,” Olusegun said

“I repaid the loan on October 28, but after that day, they kept on disturbing me to pay the interest. Since Monday, they have been disturbing me with different phone numbers.

“They made several threats during my conversations with them as well. I also received a message from someone who claimed to be a journalist working for a daily newspaper.

The message read: Punch NG: “YOU HAVE TILL 12NOON TO CLEAR YOUR LOAN TO STOP PALMCREDIT FROM ROLLING A DISGRACEFUL ACT ON YOU AND YOUR CONTACTS.’”

When FIJ contacted one of Palmcredit’s agents who chose not to state her name, she said “the computer glitch happens all the time”.

The agent also accused Olusegun of using the loan and not returning it immediately she received it.

“I work for Palmcredit and I speak to many clients every day. If she got the loan, she should have returned it immediately and not wait till it was due for repayment,” she said.

When the agent was asked why someone from her company disguised as a journalist to scare the customer, she denied knowing anything about the incident