The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has issued a firm directive requiring all digital lending operators in Nigeria to fully comply with the Digital, Electronic, Online and Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025 by Monday, January 5, 2026.

The regulations, which came into effect on July 21, 2025, under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018, are designed to promote transparency, accountability, and fairness in a sector that has seen explosive growth over the past few years.

The move is part of the Commission’s continuing efforts to sanitize a rapidly expanding digital lending space, following years of widespread complaints about unethical practices, such as unauthorized deductions, aggressive loan recovery, harassment of borrowers, and data privacy breaches.

Guidelines to Aid Compliance

To assist operators in aligning with the new rules, the FCCPC has released a supplementary instrument titled Guidelines on the Digital, Electronic, Online and Non-Traditional Consumer Lending Regulations, 2025. Developed under Sections 17 and 163 of the FCCPA, the guidelines provide detailed instructions for digital lenders, including updated versions of Forms 1 and 3 and clear documentation requirements.

The FCCPC noted that the updates were created following feedback from industry stakeholders and that operators with pending submissions could proactively provide additional information as required under the new guidelines, without waiting for a formal request.

Mr. Tunji Bello, Executive Vice Chairman of the FCCPC, emphasized the importance of timely compliance.

“Full compliance is not only a legal requirement but a critical step in protecting consumers and ensuring the sector grows fairly and responsibly. Operators have had ample time to adjust to the regulations, and we now expect all obligations to be met before the deadline,” he said.

Bello added that the Commission would continue to process pending applications transparently and promptly, ensuring no operator is unduly delayed in meeting the new compliance standards.

Enforcement and Penalties

The FCCPC has warned that enforcement actions will commence immediately after January 5, 2026. Digital lenders that fail to comply risk being restricted from operating, while their platform partners or service providers may also be ordered to cease dealings. The Commission clarified that other sanctions provided under the law could be applied to non-compliant operators. All affected entities—including lending platforms, intermediaries, and service partners—are required to meet their compliance obligations by the set deadline.

To facilitate transparency, the Commission has made copies of the Guidelines, Forms, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) available on its official website, fccpc.gov.ng, and operators can also access information via FCCPC offices nationwide or other official communication channels.

Growth of the Digital Lending Market and Emerging Risks

Nigeria’s digital lending market has grown rapidly in recent years, fueled by a surge in demand for instant credit among consumers often excluded from traditional banking channels. According to Nairametrics, the number of formally approved digital lending firms increased to 425 by May 2025, up from 320 the previous year.

This expansion has provided new avenues for financial inclusion, offering instant credit access to individuals and small businesses. However, the sector’s growth has also exposed significant consumer protection risks, including high interest rates, aggressive debt collection methods, and weak credit control mechanisms.

The FCCPC’s new regulations and guidelines seek to address these challenges by introducing uniform standards for transparency, fair lending, and borrower protection, while ensuring that operators can continue to innovate and provide services responsibly. The directive also signals the Commission’s commitment to strengthening oversight of digital financial services, balancing sector growth with the protection of vulnerable consumers.

This regulatory push reflects a broader trend in Nigeria and across emerging markets, where digital financial services are expanding rapidly, but regulatory frameworks are struggling to keep pace. Now, the FCCPC aims to instill discipline, restore consumer trust, and reduce the prevalence of predatory practices by enforcing compliance with these guidelines.

For operators, the January 2026 deadline is a critical turning point: failure to comply could result in business restrictions or operational sanctions, while timely adherence may enhance credibility with consumers and investors, ensuring long-term sustainability in a highly competitive market.

The European Commission has intensified its scrutiny of Google by launching a detailed investigation into the company’s “site reputation abuse policy,” citing concerns that it may adversely affect publishers’ revenue and business operations.

According to the Commission, preliminary findings indicate that Google could be demoting websites and content from news media and other publishers when these sites include content from business partners, potentially impacting a common and legitimate way for publishers to monetize their websites and content.

The inquiry is examining whether the policy infringes on publishers’ freedom to conduct legitimate business, innovate, and collaborate with third-party content providers, raising questions about whether Google’s anti-abuse measures go beyond targeting spam to unintentionally or deliberately penalize lawful business practices.

Google describes the site reputation abuse policy as a measure designed to curb manipulation of search rankings, targeting websites that republish third-party content in an attempt to exploit high-ranking signals without creating original material.

Responding to the Commission’s investigation, Pandu Nayak, chief scientist of Search at Google, argued that the probe is “misguided and risks harming millions of European users.” He emphasized that a similar claim had been dismissed by a German court, which ruled that Google’s anti-spam measures were valid, reasonable, and applied consistently. Nayak added that the policy is essential to fighting deceptive pay-for-play tactics, helping to “level the playing field so that websites using deceptive tactics don’t outrank websites competing on the merits with their own content.”

If the investigation concludes that Google violated the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), Alphabet could face fines of up to 6% of its global annual turnover. For systematic infringements, the Commission could also impose structural remedies, including forced divestitures or restrictions on acquisitions linked to the violation.

This probe is part of a wider EU regulatory effort. In 2023, the European Commission designated Google Search as a “core platform service” under the DMA, granting it expanded powers to oversee the platform. Google is also under separate investigation for alleged self-preferential treatment of its own services, reflecting the EU’s broader push to curb dominance by Big Tech and ensure fair competition in digital markets.

The current investigation mirrors earlier EU actions against major technology companies, particularly in how platform policies can affect competition and publishers’ revenues. For example, the Commission has previously scrutinized Apple and Amazon over their App Store and marketplace policies, focusing on practices that favored their own services or imposed restrictive conditions on third-party businesses. These cases highlight the EU’s broader strategy of regulating core platform services to prevent market distortions and safeguard digital ecosystem fairness.

Similar to these past cases, the Google investigation goes beyond simple antitrust enforcement, aiming to evaluate how algorithmic policies and platform rules can unintentionally suppress innovation and legitimate monetization strategies. This approach signals a new phase in EU tech oversight, where regulators are increasingly considering not only market share but also policy design and its real-world impact on third-party businesses.

The inquiry underscores the challenges of publishers operating in a digital landscape dominated by a few tech giants, where platform rules can directly influence visibility, traffic, and revenue. The EU’s findings could reshape the dynamics between platforms, publishers, and users, potentially setting new precedents for how AI-driven content moderation and ranking policies are regulated across Europe.