Ponzi schemes pop up every few years in Nigeria before disappearing again with billions of naira in people’s funds. We spoke to seven Nigerians about the times they fell victim to these schemes.
Joshua. 25
“I thought if it had been paying my friend for so long, it had to be be legit somehow”
I lost my job in 2020 due to the COVID lockdown and started looking for other means of making money. A friend of mine had been investing with this forex investment scheme for about six months, and he was being paid 20% every month. He’d tried to get me into it, but I was skeptical.
After I lost my job, I needed money to come in from somewhere. I already had about ₦3 million saved up, so I thought to take some risk with the investment scheme my friend was into. I was still skeptical, but I thought if it had been paying him for so long, it must be legit somehow. So, I put ₦1 million into the scheme in October 2020 and I was paid a ₦200,000 return in November.
The following month, they started having issues with paying out. They said the markets were down, but they had enough reserves to keep up with payments. LMAO. Nobody saw anything. After two months of nothing, people went to the head office of the firm to protest, and it was empty. That’s when everyone got to know what had happened. We’d been scammed.
We eventually saw videos of the main guy who was the face of the business on the internet. Man was on vacation. I…
