ONCE again, Nigerians have fallen for a Ponzi scheme named the China Beijing Equity Exchange(CBEX), losing over N1.3 trillion after investing millions in the Ponzi scheme.
CBEX, a digital asset trading platform, began in April 2025, promising investors a 100 percent return on investment within 30 days, which is characteristic of a typical Ponzi scheme.
Thousands of Nigerians, without doing their due diligence, were convinced to invest their hard-earned money into the scheme, which hitherto had nothing to do with the China Beijing Equity Exchange as popularly believed.
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The platform convinced Nigerians that it deployed artificial intelligence for trading even though this was not confirmed. Like a typical scam, the CBEX platform convinced investors that they had a physical office in Nigeria, with individuals who claimed that they were working from the Chinese office.
They enticed Nigerians with sky-high returns on investment and even ensured that the first set of individuals got their returns. When it was clear that the company was a Ponzi scheme, it began offering investors $100 or $200 in verification fees to unlock $1,000 or $2,000, respectively.
Financial analysts at that point began warning investors to flee the platform, cautioning that this was a red flag. But investors had little or no option at that time, having lost millions and billions to the Ponzi scheme. The platform has now joined the notorious class of Ponzi schemes in Nigeria such as Twinkas, Mavrodial Mondial Movement (MMM) Ultimate Cycler, Crime Alert Security Network Investment, Zar Fund, Givers Forum, iCharity, Get Help Worldwide, among others.
Nigerians’ losses to Ponzi schemes
In 2022, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Company (NDIC) disclosed that citizens had lost about N911.45 billion to various Ponzi schemes and related frauds across the country in the last 23 years.
“A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam which generates returns for earlier investors with money taken from later investors that is, robbing Peter to pay Paul. The premise of a Ponzi is that the value of the investment is not representative of any underlying productive capacity that generates value over time. Ponzi schemes and investment fraud operators are into shadow activities,” Director of the Bank Examination Department, NDIC, Mr Michael Oladele, said.
In a paper entitled, “Rising Ponzi Schemes and Investment Scams in Nigeria,” Mr Oladele said that N700 billion was trapped in private placements in Nigeria in 2016, noting that MMM swindled investors of N18 billion. He further said that MBA Forex defrauded investors of N171 billion, while another N22.45 billion was lost to Nospecto.
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He noted that Ponzi scheme cases bred a lack of trust in the financial services system, poor perception about the regulators, financial losses / mental stress, social unrest and inefficient monetary policies.
SEC’s reaction
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had warned Nigerians about CBEX, stressing that any of such platform not registered with it was illegal.
Speaking during a virtual engagement with fintech stakeholders on the Investment and Securities Act (ISA 2025) on Monday, the Director General of the SEC, Mr Emomotimi Agama, warned Nigerians against patronising unregistered platforms.
“Very recently, there has been a post that has gone viral around a particular platform and the activities of such platforms. And of course, the aftermath of it is further news of their closure and all of that.
“In fact, I was tagged in one of those messages. I want to state it very clearly. If it is not registered, it is illegal,” Agama stated without directly mentioning the platform.”
The SEC DG said the Investment and Securities Act (ISA 2025) had established rules and regulations for digital asset platforms, which were meant to promote transparency and trust.
