Loan collection companies have been known to go to great lengths to find debtors out of concern that they will flee with their money. We thought it was true when we saw memes about alleged PalmPay officials harassing ‘debtors’ and disguising themselves to get a hold of them. But how true are these things really?

It would be an understatement to say that the memes and skits gaining virality have been unhelpful for the brand. For a brand that came through for many of us during the cash crunch, I knew I had to do my own findings to separate reality from fake news.

It’s not surprising that most people just laugh at the viral memes scattered on several social media pages. Some even go on to share it with others, but at some point, there were those who come away with the belief that these things are actually true. The virality of the content even makes it harder to ignore because, let’s face it, who among us hasn’t found themselves being late on a loan in a spot of sapa before?  But the thing is, it has really painted a false picture of PalmPay in the minds of people.

Just recently, the company took to their social media pages to address the viral defamatory memes, stating clearly that the alleged PalmPay agents depicted are just skit makers and not affiliated with their company. They also called for whoever claims to have gone through such harassment by any of their officials to speak out; it remains to be seen if anyone will, because none has come for now.

As someone who has sampled different loan apps (don’t ask me why I’m sampling loan apps because this country is hard), PalmPay is one of the best payment apps out there, offering seamless account creation and transfers while aggregating services from many different providers.  Millions of people like me have enjoyed the benefits of PalmPay services, including the overdraft service from Flexi. 

Aside from access to quick loans through Flexi, PalmPay also has super-fast and free bank transfers. And I’ve been enjoying the cashback rewards. So, of course, I pay all the bills I can on the app because who doesn’t like good things? Plus, they run interesting promotions to reward customers, and details about it are regularly published on their social media platforms.

In my quest to know the truth, I dug deep and I can tell you from my findings that Flexi agents do not harass people or contact their family and friends to chase them for loan repayments. As a matter of fact, the financial company adheres strictly to data policies and has been audited and certified by the NDPR (Nigeria Data Protection Regulation).

The Flexi team confirmed that they only contact three (3) numbers which users provide when signing up on the loan and as part of their agreement policies. It is not in accordance with their practices to share or publish user information, especially in the defamatory way we’ve heard some loan apps do in recent times. Neither do their officials physically harass or arrest customers to pay up their debts.

I also saw a recent publication from PalmPay on this issue stating that it is a reputable digital payment solution app with deposits insured by the NDIC and a full CBN Mobile Money Operator license, simplifying financial processes. This is far from the unverified claims and viral memes circulating with false claims about the brand and they want users to know the truth.