Following the suspected crash of the Mavrodi Mundial Movement popularly known as MMM which sent panic across the country especially amongst participants of the Ponzi scheme, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Umaru Ibrahim has revealed how much Nigerians invested in the online financial scheme.
Speaking on the crashed scheme, the NDIC Chairman disclosed that the data gathered via social media indicated that about three million Nigerians participated in the ponzi scheme.
Umaru while speaking through the Deputy Director Corporate Affairs of NDIC, Hadi Suleiman, noted that Nigerians who participated in the online financial scheme lost an estimated N18 billion.
While speaking at the ongoing 38th Kaduna International Trade Fair in Kaduna today, Umaru said Nigerians despite repeated warnings from the Nigerian Government, CBN, NDIC and other financial bodies fell for ponzis like Bitcoin, Ripples, Monero, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Onecoin and others which claimed their money.
He said: “The Ponzi scheme is the phenomenon of illegal fund managers,popularly called “Wonder Banks” which have continued to defraud unsuspecting members of the public of their hard earned money. This phenomenon has been a source for concern because despite our repeated warnings over the years, some members of the public have continued to fall victims of their fraudulent practices.
“We would like to reiterate the fact that these fund managers are illegal as they are neither licences by the CBN to take deposits from members of the public not are those who patronise them covered by the NDIC deposit insurance scheme.
“I want to also draw the attention of some cooperative society which often go beyond their primary mandate by accepting contributions from members as cooperative societies are only recognised to mobilise savings from their members.”