We have many digital lenders in Nigeria, and some of them lie about the interest rate, loan tenure, and the loan amount disbursed. In this review, we will scrutinize Aella, one of the instant digital lenders based on user experience.
Aella is a lending app owned by Aella Financial Solutions Limited or Aella Credit Limited. Aella loan is legit as it is fully approved by the FCCPC (Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission). The address is 2b, Oko Awo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos. The website is aellaapp.com.
Is Aella Loan Legit?
Aella loan is fully approved by the FCCPC. However, Aella has now rebranded to a microfinance bank known as Aella Microfinance Bank after acquiring Flourish MFB. Flourish Microfinance bank is licensed by the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) and deposits insured by the NDIC (Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation). Aella Microfinance Bank is not yet listed as a licensed microfinance bank by the CBN.
Aella as a loan app is not excellent, despite being legit. You’ll be charged about 30% in loan interest. One positive is that, unlike traditional loan sharks, Aella gives you more than 7 days to pay back what you borrow.
You’ll see Aella’s promise that if you are approved, your loan will be disbursed in 5 minutes. But this isn’t going to be the experience. Now, Aella may sometimes show money borrowed in your wallet, then restrict your account. This means you can’t access the so-called loan displayed on your dashboard. This happens occasionally, and isn’t a good experience, especially with your repayment date still counting.
By the way, there is no guarantee that you’ll be given this loan after submitting your BVN, NIN, etc. Even when you receive a loan, it’s something small—Aella is known to have a small loan limit despite promising up to 1.5 million naira.
As for when your profile is deactivated, Aella will give you an option to upgrade from bronze to silver. This happens after they bind your ATM card. If you apply for an upgrade, your account goes into a manual review that takes a long time. The duration is different for different accounts, some more than 3 months. It’ll read that your account is verified but the review is still in progress.
So, basically, you might be stuck with the upgrade.
Unfortunately, Aella loan doesn’t provide customer support by phone or in person. You can only contact them via email or through the in-app chat, but the customer support is very poor.
How Does Aella Loan Work?
Aella gives loans from 2,000 naira and above. Don’t install this app with the hope of collecting a loan of up to 1.5 million naira as they promise—you won’t get it. This lender typically gives small loans, and takes credit history very seriously.
With Aella loan, what you’ll experience is loan interest of up to 30% or more. But compared to most loan sharks, Aella is a lot better, if only you can secure a loan approval.
How to Apply for Aella Loan
- Download the Aella app from the Google Play Store or Apple App Store
- Open an account with your personal and bank information
- Submit your registration information
- Apply for a loan
Aella may deactivate your account, and ask you to submit your ID (driver’s license, voters card, NIN, or international passport). The problem is that the manual review sometimes takes forever, which defeats its promise of 5 minutes approval.
If your loan application is approved, the money will be credited to your bank account.
As for the eligibility, you have to be resident in Nigeria and up to 18 years old.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Available on Android and iPhones
- FCCPC approved
- Licensed by the CBN but still listed under the name Flourish MFB
- Has a CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission) profile
- Loan tenure longer than 7 days
Cons
- Manual account review takes too long, which affects the loan disbursement as a new signup
- High interest rate
- Loan amount is typically very small
- Poor customer support
- Only allows contacting support by email and in-app
Is Your Personal and Bank Data Safe with Aella Lender?
Aella Financial Solutions Limited has not had complaints about customer data abuse. You can trust this loan app with your personal and bank information. However, the experience as discussed in this review is likely what you’ll come across.
Personal information collected includes your name, age, email address, phone number, personal description, marital status, photograph, username, NIN, and home address (such as utility bill). Bank information collected by Aella includes BVN (bank verification number), debit/credit card number, and bank account number.
When you install the Aella app, information collected from your device, either with your permission or no permission, includes your installed apps, device ID, device type, IMEI, GPS information, device operating system, IP address, personal contact numbers, call logs, SMS logs, Facebook friends and other social media accounts, photos, and videos or other digital content. Aella lender can also contact someone in your phone list, SMS, call list, etc.
Aella app may not be a perfect loan app but one thing they can sometimes do is actually give loans.
Verdict
This lender is legit, and that’s because of its current FCCPC status. However, Aella can leave your funds hanging, and slow to complete the manual review process before disbursing a loan. If you can’t afford their interest rate, don’t bother borrowing money from them. In this review, Aella gets a 3 out of 5 rating for making loan applications frustrating.
Read Also: Apply for ALAT NYSC Loan
