- Cautions Nigerians against Ponzi schemes
In spite of efforts by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to ensure the effective deployment of the Electronic Dividend Mandate Management System (e-DMMS), investors and stakeholders have continued to lament acute delay in the payment of their e-dividends.
Director-General of the commission, Lamido Yuguda, who stated this recently in Lagos, said unclaimed dividends as of 2021 stood at N177 billion, which was higher than the N168 billion in 2020.
“Capital market operators must also do more to demonstrate an efficient capital market system that prioritises the interest of investors through their activities.
“As part of efforts to stem the tide of activities of unregistered crowd funding platforms, the commission warned the operators of the platforms that they stand the chance of being prosecuted,” he said.
He also said the commission had obtained donor securities market surveillance system, adding that the system would improve the commission’s regulatory and supervisory capabilities over securities trading activities.
Yuguda stressed that commission would continue to engage the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to deepen the commodities ecosystem, maintaining that the commission had continued to engage the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on requests for tax exemption for corporate bonds.
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Meanwhile, the SEC has urged Nigerians to be careful in patronising Ponzi schemes, describing them as “cancerous and major hindrance to effective capital market operations.”
Yuguda said this at its post-Capital Market Committee (CMC) meeting media briefing in Abuja where he revealed that the commission had been fighting against Ponzi schemes where people without licences extort money from unsuspecting victims.
He said the commission had been working with other agencies to reduce access of Ponzi scheme in the country, adding: “We have been saying that people should only deal with registered operators with the commission. People should confirm that an operator is licensed with the commission before patronising them.
“We have done a lot of sensitisation to discourage people from patronising Ponzi schemes, but unfortunately, a lot of people still patronise them. We have cases reported to us and our enforcement and the Police have been working on several cases trying to resolve issues of investments that have been lost. It is not difficult to recognise a Ponzi scheme. When a return is too good to be true, desist from it.”
He disclosed that the commission was collaborating with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to fight money laundering and promoters of Ponzi schemes in the country.
Yuguda, who said the commission would continue to enlighten members of the public to desist from patronising Ponzi schemes, added that the 2021-2025 revised Capital Market Plan (CMP) would be launched at the next CMC’s meeting in November 2022.
