SEC Urges Young People To Avoid Ponzi Schemes

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has urged young Nigerians not to invest in Ponzi scheme.  

Director, Market Development Department of the SEC, Mr. Nestor Ikeagu stated this during the celebration of the Global Money week 2023 enlightenment campaign.

Global Money Week (GMW) is an annual global awareness raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people from an early age are financially aware, and are gradually acquiring the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience.

The SEC director said, the official theme for Global Money Week 2023 is ‘Plan your money, plant your future’ as it focuses on sustainability and raising awareness on the implications of individual financial behaviour not only on one’s financial future but also on the environment and the society.

Ikeagu stated that, there are various products available in the capital market that could appeal to the youths and urged them to plan, save and invest in the capital market.

According to him, it is also important to educate these young minds that as they plant their future, they should be mindful of some fraudulent activities such as Ponzi scheme, that can mar the growth of that financial future.

To him, “A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam promising high rates of return with little risk to investors. It is a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors. It involves paying existing investors in a non-existing enterprise with the funds collected from new investors.”

Senior manager, Financial Inclusion Department of the SEC, Mrs. Ngozi Obi  said: “it is an annual global awareness raising campaign on the importance of ensuring that young people from an early age are financially aware and are gradually acquiring knowledge and skills, attitude, behaviours necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial well-being and financial resilience.

“The aim of our visit here today is to create awareness to the youth as part of the financial literacy to educate the youth and get them acquainted with the financial culture to enable them make informed decisions before investments.”