‘Silicon Savannah’ targets loan apps abusing user data

 

The 14 days given to John Bigingi to repay a loan of Sh8,200 had barely lapsed when he started receiving text messages threatening to call the contacts on his phone and expose him as a defaulter.

“Silence means you don’t want to pay your loan which is already due,” said an SMS message sent by digital lender iPesa to Mr Bigingi and shown to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.