Culture, Politics, and Money among the Yoruba by Adebayo Akanmu;

Author:Adebayo, Akanmu;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group

The Ordinance in Practice

After 1 January 1939, a moneylender was required to carry license. Applicants who fulfilled the conditions in the ordinance were licensed. In the 1940s and 1950s when the number of licensed lenders was high the government rejected many applications just to keep the number down.42 An annual list of registered lenders was prepared, and every approved license was published in the gazette. Most of the lenders were Ijebu, Ijesa, and Lebanese. The majority were located in the cities, although this did not prevent them from servicing the surrounding villages. Because of the rules on record keeping, a licensed money lender was expected to be literate. The majority of the illiterates who applied were rejected. However, many illiterates continued to operate illegally with absolute disregard for the ordinance. Applicants who were thought to be employees of the government were also denied.43

Many moneylenders subverted the requirement that they operate as a business concern by inventing hundreds of business names (e.g., Orukope Money Lending Association, Stephen George Loan Bureau, Public Service Bureau, Moderate Loan Syndicate).44 Most moneylenders, however, continued to operate as a one-man businesses. Even in cases where they supplied names and addresses of partners, it turned out that such partners were their relations and dependants who had no role whatsoever to play in the business. A few societies and guilds registered as moneylenders in order to assist their members and give loans at lower interest than the individual lender.45

Whether a person applied as a company or in his name, the police or an administrator would investigate the character of the moneylender. Cited below is one such report on Yusufu Apewaje:

I was detailed to investigate on one Yusufu Apewaje (m) of Yoruba who applied for a money lender’s license in Agbor. Enquiries made from various persons in the town as regard to his character and his financial ability enquiry revealed that he had been here since 1914, he is a trader and lorry owner he had about three lorries and a car, he is honest, and a well to do gentleman, though an illiterate person. He had never been to prison before, he is a man of good conduct. Steady in business of his, his financial standing is about £1000 and he never use to make noise by giving troubles in the town. I therefore recommend his application for the licence.46

Most moneylenders had cash (roughly estimated at between £20 and £150), and other investments. In general, moneylending was combined with other activities like trading. Many already had lorries and houses, big cocoa and kolanut farms, and had acquired some fame in the town as investors or alajo. The women among them were traders or wives to husbands with money and connections.

It was important to start the business with a lot of cash to lend. A Police report on an applicant made this clear:

There is nothing known against this applicant from a Police point of view, and his general character can be assessed as good. His financial resources, however appear to be lean.

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