The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it sealed a total of 40 illegal investment schemes last year even as it expressed concern over the persistent proliferation of operators in the capital market.
Director General of the SEC, Lamido Yuguda, stated this yesterday in Abuja, assuring of a renewed onslaught against promoters of such schemes.
Yuguda said the sealed operators had defrauded innocent citizens of billions of naira and stressed that the Commission would continue its enforcement actions to ensure that such illegal entities are not allowed to operate.
He said: “SEC has been fighting a serious war against Ponzi schemes, we have been alerting people. We have said that investors should only deal with operators that have the registration of the Commission; we have their list on the SEC website. We have always said that if you go to an operator or when an operator approaches you, you must confirm that the company is a licensed operator with the SEC.
“We have our numbers on how to reach our offices in different zones, and we have done a lot of sensitisations in terms of seminars and webinars in an effort to discourage people from patronising Ponzi schemes.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people continue to patronise the Ponzi schemes; we have had cases that have been reported to us. Our enforcement department and the police unit have been on many of these cases, trying to resolve them.”
He said the Commission has continued to employ its compliance tools to ensure that only fit and proper capital market operators practise in the market. The effort, he said, has resulted in improved compliance with filing of prudential returns rising to 96 per cent in 2022 compared with 81 per cent recorded in 2021.
The DG expressed confidence that as the results of the various initiatives of the Commission would start manifesting this year in form uncommon development in securities issuance businesses, especially as they affect digital assets, commodities trading ecosystem, custodianship of assets and fintech.
