The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), says it is constantly building both human and regulatory capacities to meet up with evolving activities of Ponzi schemes.
Mr Micheal Oladele, the Director, Bank Examination Department (BED) of NDIC, said this at the 2022 workshop for business editors and members of Financial Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) which opened in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Oladele said that the Corporation was also encouraging the public to report such schemes known as ‘wonder banks’ via the NDIC website.
The director in a lecture with the title ‘Rising Ponzi Scheme and Investment Scam in Nigeria: What we need to know’, advised the public to only patronise regulated entities and always conduct due diligence while trying to invest.
He said the Corporation was a member of the inter-agency committee on illegal fund managers including the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among others.
Oladele said that Ponzi scheme was an aspect of investment fraud, saying that there was paucity of data for Ponzi scheme frauds in the country.
The director listed some of the method of operations of Ponzi schemes to include offering of abnormal return on investment and desperate search for new investors.
He suggested stiffer penalties for operators of Ponzi schemes.
According to him, women are mostly being used to perpetrate the Ponzi scheme and advised them to to desist from being used as ambassadors to Ponzi scheme testimonials.
