The Office of the Data Protection Commission (ODPC) has launched investigations on 40 Digital Credit Providers for misuse of personal data.
The ODPC said it launched investigations following complaints from members of the public on the safety of their data.
“The ODPC wishes to notify the public that it is conducting preliminary documentary assessment and audit on 40 Digital Credit Providers (DCPs) whose practices regarding the processing of personal data has been raised to the Data Commissioner as complaints by various members of the public,” it said in a statement.
Among the digital lenders under investigation are Branch, Tala, APESA, ASAPKASH, Cash Sea, Collectplus, Coopesa, Credit Kes, Credit Moja, Deltech Capital Limited, DIRECT CASH, Fairkash.
Others are Flashpesa, Flexi Cash, Hela Credit, Hikash, IKASH Connect, INSTARCASH, IPESA, KASH LOAN, KASHBEAN, KASHPLUS, KASHWAY, KESLOAN, LEMON KASH, Lioncash, M-CREDIT, METALOAN, Mokash, PAPCASH, POCKET CASH, PREMIER CREDIT LTD, ROCKET PESA, Senti, Skypesa, Wakanda Credit, Zash loan, Zenka Digital Limited and Zuri Cash.
As of September 30, the ODPC said it had received 1,030 complaints. The office admitted 555 of these cases, including 299, which were on Digital Lenders, representing 54 per cent of all cases admitted.
The Data Protection (Complaints Handling and Enforcement Procedures) regulations, 2021, took effect in February 2022, paving the way for data subjects to file complaints and report data breaches to the Data Commissioner.
During the audit process, the aforementioned DCPs will be required to provide this Office with requisite documents by October 18, 2022, failure to which they will be deemed to have failed to cooperate with the Office, which is an offence under Section 61 of the Act.
