₦airaland Forum

The Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Emomotimi Agama has warned celebrities and influencers against promoting unregistered investment platforms.

He noted that promoting or endorsing ponzi schemes could attract legal consequences, maintaining that the commission frowns upon promotion of meme coins or projects that harm the public.

Agama stated this during a virtual engagement with fintech stakeholders on Monday, April 14, 2025.
This is as the commission cautioned the public against investing in unregistered digital investment platforms, amid mounting concerns over the rising popularity of such platforms.

This renewed stance by the commission follows social media uproar following the crash of CBEX, a digital asset trading platform which recently bolted with investors’ funds.

The SEC DG stated that by virtue of the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 recently signed by President Bola Tinubu, any platform not registered with the commission is operating illegally.
He emphasised that the new act grants SEC enhanced powers to regulate digital asset platforms, including the authority to prosecute operators of unregistered platforms and ponzi schemes.

The act stipulates that such operators face up to ten years in prison and fines of up to ₦40 million.

hardknocksng:
Nigerians do not learn .. them and quick money na 5 & 6
Anybody affected by this recent yet another Ponzi scheme deserves what he or she gets. No atom of sympathy at all

My Ponzi don cast to be fake , almost all of them, yet, we do it learn .

Celebrities too are involved in this scheme as well, so anyone promoting any Ponzi should be jailed for 5year
Greedy lots .

Thescrutinyng:
https://thescrutinyng.com/cbex-stop-promoting-ponzi-schemes-sec-warns-influencers/

bassdow:
So EFCC, and all other relevant arms of the government would always choose to keep mute till things goes wrong.

What stops the bunch of waste products called EFCC and the likes being proActive

bassdow:
So EFCC, and all other relevant arms of the government would always choose to keep mute till things goes wrong.

What stops the bunch of waste products called EFCC and the likes being proActive

malali:
Once again, the government arrives late to the crime scene—after citizens have been financially violated—only to issue warnings and threats to celebrities. The CBEX crash didn’t happen in one day. There were months of social media ads, fake testimonials, and high-profile endorsements.

Where were the EFCC, SEC intelligence arms, the Central Bank, and fintech watchdogs when Nigerians were pouring billions into these traps?

Regulation is not reaction. Regulation is protection.

If oversight agencies only flex their muscles after the public is scammed, then the system isn’t regulatory—it’s ceremonial. And now, they want to scapegoat celebrities and media influencers as the problem?

Let’s ask it plainly:

Are celebrities and media influencers running the country now?

When the government refuses to:
• Proactively flag suspicious investment schemes,
• Mandate ad disclosure and digital audit trails, and
• Enforce public accountability BEFORE people are swindled,

Then you can’t turn around and wag your finger at desperate Nigerians trying to survive by promoting “opportunities.”

Yes, influencers should be more ethical—but they are not policymakers.
They didn’t authorize these fake firms.
They didn’t allow CBEX to run TV ads.
They didn’t sit on the sidelines while the app hit a million downloads.

Poverty has become a tool, and opportunists are weaponizing it daily.

What Nigeria needs is:
• Proactive surveillance teams tracking high-risk fintech apps,
• Fast-response bans on suspicious investment sites, and
• Direct SMS alerts to Nigerians about red-flag companies.