Again, Nigerians lose savings to Ponzi scheme

Nigerians who invested millions of naira in an online investment platform known as PXES are counting their losses after the scheme abruptly stopped paying returns and became inaccessible.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that the platform stopped paying participants in early September, with investors who committed sums ranging from tens of thousands of Naira to millions left in limbo and in some cases, unable to reach the operators.

The collapse has triggered outrage among investors, some of whom stormed and looted PXES offices across the country, particularly in Adamawa and Kogi states, in a desperate bid to recover part of their money.

Our correspondents learnt that the platform attracted investors with unusually high daily returns.

According to reports, the platform promised investment returns at between 25 per cent and 50 per cent, with some packages offering as high as 120 per cent.

Saturday PUNCH could not independently verify all the reported returns.

Outrage in Adamawa, Kogi

Our correspondents gathered that in Adamawa and Kogi states, aggrieved investors descended on PXES offices after being unable to withdraw their funds.

Videos circulating online showed people removing chairs, tables and other items from the premises in Yola, while similar scenes were witnessed at the company’s office in Kabba.

In one of the videos, a man who reportedly invested about N209,000 was heard crying and lamenting his inability to recover his money.

The Kabba manager of the platform was said to have earlier sent a message to investors after payments stopped, assuring them that the management would compensate them for their patience.

However, three days after the message was circulated, the company allegedly shut its office, leaving investors with little information about the whereabouts of the operators or the fate of their funds.

How we were scammed – victims

A victim, Bunmi Awodipe, said the decision to invest in PXES was based on the experience of friends who appeared to be making money from the platform.

Awodipe told Saturday PUNCH that three of her friends had shown evidence of receiving returns from PXES, convincing her to put N200,000 into the scheme.

“They told me they invested money in PXES and were receiving their payments. They showed me evidence, so I decided to invest N200,000 and was receiving N7,000 every week. They only paid me for three weeks.

“When I went to their office last week, I didn’t see anyone. The place was locked and there was nothing in the office. Everything was removed,” Awodipe said.

Another investor, Deji Mulero, said he joined the platform after it was introduced to him by a customer.

“It’s one of my customers who introduced this thing to me on September 4. I registered with N65,000 and it crashed the same Friday. That was how I lost my money,” he said.

Another participant, who introduced himself simply as Wale, said he registered with N207,000 and had accumulated almost N600,000 in his account before the platform stopped operating.

Responding to an enquiry from Saturday PUNCH via message, Wale said, “Been there for some months. Registered with 207k, now on first stage supervisor. Got close to 600k already on that account. My friend in Abuja introduced the scheme to me.”

For 68-year-old Jumoke Talabi, the investment was intended to provide money for her granddaughter’s school expenses and household needs.

Talabi said she invested N64,800 after seeing other participants receive payments.

She said she had earlier received N70,000 from the platform and subsequently decided to increase her investment.

According to her, she had expected another payment when the platform’s withdrawal period arrived.

“I was meant to collect N18,000 before school resumes, and I thought that I would finish collecting all my profit. But so far, I have not collected any money.

“When they said we should withdraw on Friday, I was dancing. I told my brother that the money did not enter my account, but I was told it would hit my account in the evening. I was looking forward to it. They didn’t even pay me my N64,000. One of my friends doesn’t know what to do or where to go. She has been crying,” she recalled.

Explaining why she took the risk, the grandmother said, “It’s poverty that made me do it. If not poverty, I would not, because the money is meant for school fees. I thought that maybe, I would see some to buy rice and eat.”

Shola Adeshina, whose wife also lost money to the scheme, told Saturday PUNCH that some investors were attracted by claims that relatively small amounts could generate substantial daily returns.

He said his wife initially ignored his concerns about the platform because of the stories of people making money from it.

“Stories of participants using proceeds from the platform to buy cars and build houses further increased its appeal.

“The situation became alarming when a couple who invested millions of naira visited a branch after payments stopped, only to discover that the office had been abandoned,” he said.

How PXES worked

Interviews with participants and promotional materials reviewed by Saturday PUNCH indicate that PXES operated through a tiered membership structure in which participants paid specified amounts to join and were then given access to an online dashboard.

One participant, Funmi Deinde, told Saturday PUNCH that she withdrew her money before the collapse and explained that the platform had different levels, including Star 1, Star 2 and Star 3.

According to her, members were given access to a dashboard through which they completed daily tasks described as orders.

“If you’re on Level Star 1, so to say, it is about N21,600. Then Star 2 is N54,800. Star 3 is N207,000.

“When you join with this money, you have an account, a dashboard that you’ll be taking orders from every day,” she said.

Deinde explained that products, including household items, were displayed on the dashboard for participants to interact with.

She compared the process with ordering products on e-commerce platforms such as Temu and Jumia, although participants did not physically receive the goods.

“When you click ‘Order’, they will highlight some of the things that you should be clicking. Household properties will be highlighted there.

“The money that you used to register has secured you a place as a member. So, you now have access to take orders every day,” Deinde said.

According to Deinde, the platform initially allowed members to withdraw their earnings daily, with withdrawals later changed to weekly as the number of participants increased.

“Initially, every day, you can withdraw whatever you want to withdraw. The least withdrawal was N1,500, N5,000, N20,000, N100,000 and so on,” she added.

Deinde noted that withdrawal days were subsequently assigned according to the different membership levels.

Another investor, Emmanuel Ajayi, said a N64,000 package generated about N2,160 from the daily tasks, while a N21,600 package generated about N720.

Online promotional materials reviewed by Saturday PUNCH also showed packages beginning from N21,600, with other packages including N64,800 and N207,000.

The materials claimed that N21,600 could generate up to N259,200 over 360 days, while N64,800 could generate up to N777,600 within the same period.

The claims represented returns many times the original amounts invested.

Participants also said members could introduce new people to the platform and build networks.

A security guard (name withheld) who invested N64,000 said he was initially reluctant to join after his sister introduced the scheme to him.

He eventually invested after repeated persuasion and said he withdrew about N20,000 twice before losing the balance when the platform stopped paying.

He said his sister, who had built a larger network on the platform, lost more than N1m.

Investment or digital marketing?

The description of PXES by its representatives raises questions about the nature of the business and the source of the money used to pay participants.

At a recent event in Kabba, PXES representatives described the organisation not as an investment platform but as a digital marketing and advertising company.

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A company representative, Olubowale Ayodele, told participants that PXES provided digital marketing opportunities to unemployed people and graduates.

“It’s a job that once you are doing it, we promote others; we promote brands from clients that have been giving to our company,” he said.

Ayodele urged unemployed people and graduates to use their smartphones to participate in what he described as digital marketing work.

“If you know you are a graduate, if you know that you are unemployed, or if you know that you just have your smartphone, use it to do this digital marketing work because it works,” he stated.

He also claimed that one member of his team was receiving N700,000 weekly.

“By God’s grace, I have got somebody even out of my team that is receiving 700,000 weekly as salary,” Ayodele said.

Another PXES official, identified as the company’s training director, Eniola Oluwatobi, described the company as an advertising firm.

“This is an advertising company. They partner with eBay and Amazon; those people give them, and PXES give us to advertise for them,” he said.

According to him, products were distributed to members through the PXES application for advertising.

“So, the PXES distributes those products to us to advertise for them through their app. So, by doing that, people are seeing the products,” Oluwatobi added.

At the same Kabba event, the Obadofin of Oweland, Olusegun Are, described PXES as an income opportunity.

“PXES is a very laudable programme that will help all of us in Nigeria to have another stream of income,” he said.

The traditional ruler also claimed that PXES had provided food items to more than 300 elderly people in Kabba.

Questions over authorisation

The collapse has also raised questions about whether the platform was authorised to solicit investment funds from members of the public.

A financial analyst, George Samuel, said prospective investors should establish whether an organisation was authorised to collect deposits or solicit investment funds before putting money into it.

He said registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission did not by itself authorise a company to accept investment funds from members of the public.

“While a Corporate Affairs Commission number may be necessary, it does not serve as a licence to accept deposits or investment funds,” Samuel said.

“Avoid depositing or investing with any unlicensed firms. They are required to display their licence in their office, so ask or look for that SEC licence and do basic due diligence,” he added.

Samuel said institutions taking deposits and those offering investments were subject to regulatory requirements and urged Nigerians to verify the relevant licence before investing.

A banker, Kemi Junaid, also identified promises of unusually high returns and guaranteed profits as major warning signs.

“Financial desperation and poor financial literacy often made people vulnerable to schemes promising quick and substantial returns.

“Prospective investors should question how an organisation intends to generate the returns it promises rather than relying on testimonials from other participants,” she said.

Report investment scams — EFCC

Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would investigate reported cases of financial crimes and investment scams brought before it.

The EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, told Saturday PUNCH that the commission would act where complaints were formally reported.

“Any issue of financial crime, Ponzi scheme, investment scam that is duly reported to the EFCC, the commission will look into it. But it must be duly reported,” Oyewale said.

He recalled that the commission had repeatedly warned Nigerians against investment scams.

“As a form of reminder, the commission has issued several advisories against investment scams and Ponzi schemes. And we will continue to advise members of the public on doing due diligence before going into investment,” Oyewale said.

He added that the commission remained committed to preventing financial crimes and protecting members of the public from avoidable losses.

“But as an anti-corruption agency, we are unrelenting in our operational and preventive modalities to ensure that members of the public are shielded from all of these avoidable losses,” Oyewale said.

The EFCC spokesperson, however, did not confirm that the commission had opened an investigation specifically into PXES.

A recurring cycle

The PXES crisis is coming less than two years after a series of investment schemes left Nigerians counting losses after promising unusually high returns.

In April 2025, the collapse of Crypto Bridge Exchange, popularly known as CBEX, triggered one of the biggest recent Ponzi-related crises in Nigeria.

No fewer than 600,000 Nigerians reportedly invested in CBEX, with losses put at about N1.3tn.

The platform had promised investors 100 per cent returns after 30 days through purported artificial intelligence-powered trading.

The Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently said CBEX and its affiliates had never been registered to operate as a digital asset exchange or solicit investments from the Nigerian public.

The commission said its preliminary investigation showed that the platform created a false perception of legitimacy and promised “implausibly high guaranteed returns” within a short period.

The collapse also prompted the EFCC to investigate the scheme.

By July 2025, the commission said some promoters had been arrested and that recovery and forfeiture proceedings were underway.

Barely six months later, another platform, EMAAR, reportedly collapsed after attracting more than 4,000 investors with promises of returns from supposed real estate investments.

A Saturday PUNCH investigation published in December 2025 found that the platform had operated largely online, with its promoters using Telegram groups to recruit and communicate with investors.

The platform crashed on October 27, 2025, with victims unable to withdraw their funds. Subsequent reports put the suspected losses at nearly N3bn.

In May 2026, another investment platform, XM Future Music Group, reportedly crashed after investors were unable to withdraw their funds.

Victims subsequently stormed its office in Badagry, Lagos State, and reportedly carted away generators, chairs, fans, televisions and other office equipment.

The platform had reportedly promised participants returns for listening to music and completing online tasks, with entry packages ranging from N21,600 to several million naira.

The repeated pattern of aggressive recruitment, early payments, promises of exceptional returns, referral incentives, withdrawal problems and eventual collapse has become familiar to Nigerians.

PXES website, WhatsApp, Facebook inactive

An attempt by Saturday PUNCH to access the platform’s known website, https://www.pxesng.com/, was unsuccessful.

It was also gathered from some investors that the platform’s WhatsApp channel had been blocked.

Checks on its Facebook page, PXES NG, showed that its last post was made on June 21.

A review of the page showed that it was largely used to publicise training sessions and meetings for participants, including offline sessions organised to train them on team building and how to maximise their earnings.

The page also served as an interface between the platform and participants, with posts highlighting PXES’ activities and its claimed expansion across Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

In some of its posts, the platform claimed to have impacted more than one million members through financial stability and welfare support.