The Securities and Exchange Commission will partner relevant stakeholders in its drive to ensure that illegal fund managers are not allowed to thrive in the country.
Mr. Mohammed Bagudu Waziri, Deputy Director and Head External Relations Department of the SEC, who disclosed this during a meeting with Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria in Lagos, noted that the menace of Ponzi scheme has been prevalent in recent times especially with the use of social media and said that the SEC is committed to ensuring that Nigerians do not continue to lose money to these illegal operators.
He added: “There has been an upsurge in the activities of these illegal fund managers and this has led to Nigerians losing their hard earned monies to these schemes. We will continue to educate and enlighten Nigerians on the need to patronage only operators that are registered by the Commission. There are numerous products in the capital market that Nigerians can patron5ise and get the benefits of their Investments.
“The list of all registered capital market operators can be found on the SEC website and those are the people members of the public should do business with. Anyone coming to you promising unreasonably high return on investment and is not registered with the Commission, we are urging Nigerians not to patronage those people.
“Ensure that they are registered with the Commission and also check that they are registered for that specific function they are marketing to you. On its part, the SEC ensures that only fit and proper persons are allowed to operate in the capital market”
He stated that the Nigerian capital market is still evolving hence the need for all hands to be on deck to educate and guide investors which will in turn aid investor protection.
“At the SEC, we try to ensure that people play by the rules in a bid to making our market safe and fit for investment. We all know that it is only when investors trust our market that they will bring their money, and this is one of the things we try to do at the Commission” he stated.
He commended CRAN on its efforts in educating and enlightening the investing public especially on the danger of Ponzi schemes and added that more still needs to be done.