Algorithmic governance or extortion? Everyday experiences of fintech for loans in Nigeria

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the everyday experiences of financialised inclusion amongst fintech users in Nigeria. Concerns about the use of fintech to drive financial inclusion in the global south have led social scientific scholars to argue that it extends processes of financialisation by employing opaque algorithms to extract the behavioural data of users in order to inundate them with unsecured credit and monetise their data through resale. The consequences of these practices are not fully understood across various contexts. Using a variety of ethnographic methods, this paper examines patterns of fintech adoption and usage in Jimeta, Nigeria. It demonstrates that while fintech allows people to sort out their personal issues amidst precarity, it is also entangled in algorithmic governance issues that facilitate algorithmic extortion to the detriment of user populations. Ultimately, the paper argues that fintech, contrary to claims about its potential to unlock prosperity, is one that opens up novel possibilities for profit making and accumulation, albeit with severe consequences on user populations.

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