The media has been full of stories of the reemergence of several "suspect" finance/investment houses operating in the country, offering unrealistic returns on investment and interest rates usually above 100 percent to members of the financial public.

Staff are advised to be aware of the operations of these institutions

Most of these institutions collect money from members of the public either in form of deposits or investments, which they claim to invest in stocks or oil and gas.

There is a high level of doubt about the legal operations of these institutions.

The CBN act allows only licensed banks to collect deposits from members of the public.



All companies operating any form of investment activity in Nigeria or raising monies for investment purposes must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Any firm operating in the oil and gas industry should have a registration with the Department of Petroleum Resources which is the apex regulator in the petroleum industry.

Finally, all firms in Nigeria must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). In their registration with CAC, it will be clearly stated, the people behind the company and the type of business they are registered to do. Any business activity outside what is expressly stated in their registration is considered illegal.

We will therefore like to advise staff to observe due diligence in dealing with these institutions which have been attracting a lot of media attention recently.

Under the KYC rules, if you have to deal with these institutions;

Make sure you demand for their registration certificate from the CBN as a finance house

Or

Registration with SEC to operate as an investment outfit or raise money from the public

Or

Registration from the CAC commission on what type of business they have been registered to do

Or

A registration with the DPR to show that they can operate in the oil and gas industry

Without any of this registration or a combination of two or more, they are likely to be operating an illegal business and should not be dealt with officially.

If you have to deal with them personally, please observe due caution (strictly at your own risk)

Listed below is a list of some of the suspect financial houses operating in Nigeria as published by THE NEWS Magazine in its current edition (April 9, 2007).

Nospetco

Treasureline Interlink Limited

Silvertrust Global

Wealth Spinners

Spring of Wealth

Sefteg

Nayaco Oil and Gas

Greenminds Investment (Citadel Energy Ltd)

Silverlink

GFS

Hazonwao

Uphenry

Wealth Solution

Antonio Oil

Fort Lauvels

THanks for the topic bro

I don't think there is anything wrong with the presence of investment houses.

Nice post but consider that these chaps are not really investment houses in that sense but only have investment schemes as a means of raising capital for their respective businesses.A close check will reveal that most are into oil and gas which rquires heavy investmets and gives great returns.

ok what is CBN,CAC<SEC and EFCC doing at the moment to stop all this if they are fraudlent. They should make it clear and safe we nigerians the headache of loosing our money. If they are not fraudlent they should let us know as well so we can invest more and get more returns.

That information was an Internal Memo by a Bank to their staff in case these outfits came to open an account with them. Albeit, most of these outfits have already opened accounts with most of the banks so whats the whistle-blowing all about ? Methinks The News just wants to sensationalise the whole thing, sell their magazines and create confusion and doubts in peoples minds,

l/cool
pls give me sefteg contact details

The irony of it is that the article in THE NEWS mag seems to be a great free advert for some of the relatively unknown schemes which people now know exists. I can say a lot of the people that put their monies in these schemes (myself inclusive) are well aware of the risks involved. So what's the fuss If the EFCC/CBN etc consider any of them to be ponzis or fradulent let them PLEEEAAASSS come out and say so. Then we'll know which of them we can increase our stakes in and which one to bail out. But to think we'll chicken out as a result of memos like this is funny to say the least.

if you have invested in HYIPS ,you wont be surprised with this developemenet

Hmmm, are u sure they r illegal?my mom has an investment plan wit nospetco, and she says they are not illegal finance houses, she started it last year,and if truely they are illegal why has the CBN refused to do anything about them?

yeah they could be illegal if they have not met all the requirements to run such establishments , but u see there are some kind of business where an honest fund manager may not be able to continue to pay at the rate that was set out from the onset cos that rate is not sustainable on the long run , this is where this kind of investments would start to hurt .
why don't u ask yourself this question ; why have banks and other institutions that have lots of cash not invested in this kind of schemes ?

egoldman:

why have banks and other institutions that have lots of cash not invested in this kind of schemes ?

Who told you that banks and other institutions have not invested with theses schemes ?? You must be bluffing yourself. You need to keep your ear to the ground and you'll be intrigued with what you'll hear. Bank staff and managers are involved in their personal capacity; some banks have permanent staff dedicated to the receipt of deposits and disbursement of payouts to these HYIP customers, and some even serve as Agents-earning commission on referrals.

I thought OBJ was reforming the Bank/Finance industry??

so how come the nature of these 'entities' still in doubt? so much for reforms.

LondonCool:

Who told you that banks and other institutions have not invested with theses schemes ?? You must be bluffing yourself. You need to keep your ear to the ground and you'll be intrigued with what you'll hear. Bank staff and managers are involved in their personal capacity; some banks have permanent staff dedicated to the receipt of deposits and disbursement of payouts to these HYIP customers, and some even serve as Agents-earning commission on referrals.

For example, I hear 1st bank (the most respected bank in the country) has a special teller for people making deposits into Nospecto's account in one of their branches in Lagos.

@gists,
to buttress your piont, i have a reliable source that told me he started investing with nosptc when his banker sister confirmed the chairman of their bank(one of the biggest ones) invested with them also. The new ones springing up as per naija rush rush is what is causing the confusion and all. NIGERIA FACTOR is the problem no order of some sort!!!!cbn/efcc/sec i am sure has got wind maybe the election is delaying response to act;to fish out the chokes!!!!

Hi egoldman, pls what is the meaning of HYIPS?

dare_alabi:

Hi egoldman, please what is the meaning of HYIPS?

If you have to ask you can't afford,  or you shouldn't be getting involved

It means High Yield Investment Programme
They abound on the internet and are mainly scams

In this forum it has been used (erroneously) to describe the several investment programmes which exist in Nigeria and offer returns of between 6-10% per month
Some programmes also listed under this description give yields of up to 400%

It is generally believed that most HYIPs are multilevel marketing scams or pyramid schemes where one person has to introduce another in order to keep building the pyramid

They are usually very enticing to followers of the 'get rich quick' and 'riches right now' club
Most people get their fingers burnt in the schemes that abound on the internet

However in Nigeria several investment schemes have been running for years and no scheme failed to deliver to date

There are 2 groups in this forum those who have been investing for some time and will swear by Nigerian HYIPs and those who have been crying wolf waiting for the bubble to burst
There is also another group (sit don look) who continue to watch by the side lines and are yet to make up their minds

I am not (yet) an investor in any of these schemes

The jury is still out

@gists,
it seems you have invested in hazonwao. pls get me detail
about them, am about .investing in them e mail me
with this dolamos@yahoo.com
thanz

Dolami,
You can get all the info you want about hazonwao at www.hazonwao.com

dele9000:

Hmmm, are u sure they r illegal?my mom has an investment plan wit nospetco, and she says they are not illegal finance houses, she started it last year,and if truely they are illegal why has the CBN refused to do anything about them?

probably because they are no refund policies with them if they close them down they'll also be expected to get the money back

HI, I BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE 3 CATEGORIES OF POEPLE ABOUT THIS INVESTMENT HOUSES
1: POEPLE WHO ARE SCARED
REASON: HISTORY OF FAILURE WITH THE PREVIUOS INVESTMENT HOUSES
NO SAVING CULTURE OF NIGERIANS
FAILURE OF CONTINUTY IN GOVERNMENT
GOVERMENTAL POLICIES
2: POEPLE WHO ARE IN IT AND ARE MAKING MONEY FOR GOOD

3: POEPLE WHO BELIEVE IN IT BUT DONT HAVE THE CAPTIAL TO INVEST.
WHICH ONE ARE U?

WELL I WILL ADVICE THESE INVESTMENT (NOSPECTO,TREASURELINE INTERLINK LIMITED,SILVER TRUST,WEALTH SPINNERS,SPRING OF WEALTH,SEFTEQ,NAYACO,GREENMINDS,SILVER TRUST,GFS,WEALTH SOLUTION) TO REDUCE THEIR INTEREST RATE TO M,AINTAIN AND SUSTAIN THE MARKET.
DEJISTIC LAWS( LUTH)

@DEJISTIC
i belong to the first group.
SCARED TO THE BONESSSSSSSSSS

please dont be scared, life is too short, the word riches is dervied from risks, please  change ur destiny by taking calculated risk .

thank God you said calculated risk,
how can i calculate the risk of investment houses that doesnt have any record i can analise.
never invest just on hearsay ,thats follow follow.

my destiny is on the right part,so i have no need of changing it.

Anybody having information on treasure fund should please send to me