Nigeria’s Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has implemented the previously anticipated Digital, Electronic, Online, or Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations (DEON Consumer Lending Regulations), 2025, to introduce regulatory structure in the digital borrowing space.
DEON Consumer Lending Regulations has formalized a structure of compliance to protect consumers and demand transparency from digital lending platforms.
Under the regulations, unsecured lending to consumers via digital and non-traditional methods of providing borrowing – online lending, mobile apps, fintechs, airtime and data loans offered by telcos and woo-new bored and barter-based lending – registered and approved with the FCCPC. The operator required to submit a sufficient package of documents inclusive of a compliance Audit and data protection impact assessment, and pay between N100,000 and N1,000,000 fees depending on how many software applications were in place.
Approval by the FCCPC is available for one year, requiring renewals every thirty-six (36) months. Microfinance banks are not required to register; however, if they want to conduct digital lending service activities, they must obtain a waiver from the FCCPC.
Transparency, ethical conduct, and the disclosure of all loan conditions are required by the regulations. Digital lenders must now disclose all the terms of the loan agreement first, before any transaction takes place, including interest rates, fees, tenor and repayment. Borrowers must be provided terms that are fit for their level of literacy as another requirement of the regulatory structure.
Regulatory authorities targeted objectionable marketing practices; lending apps are not permitted to access (or make a request to access) info on the borrower contacts, bills, photographs, or transaction history that represent information categories personally sensitive. The prohibition against the acquisitions of personal information is to provide consumer protection against harassment and privacy violations.
The rules called for greater governance with partnerships: digital lenders will require FCCPC approval prior to executing any agreement or enter an amended agreement with a vendor. The FCCPC will have 30 days to evaluate an application, which may be extended by FCCPC discretion. Lenders will also have their obligations for annual return on biannual compliance in transaction volume, interest, fee income, customer service involvement/interactions, and complaints.
FCCPC exhibits a substantial commitment to compliance, and thus imposes significant fines/losses for noncompliance. Fines are up to ₦100 million for companies, or 1% of annual turnover, whichever is greater. Natural persons face fines up to ₦50 million, may be banned from holding directorship or directorial responsibilities up to five years.
If a firm or natural person has breach of report back compliance, or if they fail to follow their compliance as regulators intended, etc., then there would be suspension, delisting, or revocation of regulatory approvals.
Assessments of interest rates, which have been a primary source of consumer complaints and grievances, will occur alongside fees and levies. The FCCCP may monitor borrowing monthly for the purposes of reporting whether borrowing costs not considered exploitive or unreasonably exploitive, or in consumers’ interests. This sets the precedent, and represents the first step in a movement away from informal lending. Some lenders took issue with queerer interest rates definitions, arguing that their pricing includes only movement costs, concerns for risk. and rights of op cost. This does suggest a step towards more regulated financial inclusion. Participating dynamics assume this, would lead lenders to formally recommend credit and regulator recommendations to depend more heavily on credit bureaus.
Prior to credit requirements transforming in officially expressed terms, there were more than 425 digital lenders in the FCCPC’s register and recognition from previous models until mid-2025; the new rules will formalize practices and routines while replacing episodic emergency redress: app delisting with structured oversight.
The beneficiaries of these regulations were the support groups, advocates for consumers’ consumer protection who stated that the FCCPC had undergone major reforms, while regarding lenders, concerns persist – high compliance costs and low consumer fees may mean some lenders might consolidate lending practices and fees leading to higher costs of borrowing, fewer amounts of credit available to higher risk borrowers, or both.
Nonetheless, regardless of the future of interest rates policy and how it evolves into a sustainable and account latently sustainable venture with monitor enhancement; this regulatory frame denotes a watershed moment in the evolution of digital lending in Nigeria, shifting from informal or non-supervised lending to a finalized embedded element in the Nigerian financial system, providing their greater exposure around the concepts of supervision, process fairness, and practice accountability.