Now That the Ponzi Bubble Has Burst, Can We Get Back to Work?
For months, Nigerians at home and abroad were swept up in the latest wave of Ponzi schemes cleverly disguised as forex trading platforms. Names like CBEX, PCEX, WWWCOIN, and several others quickly became household terms. They promised high returns on investments, often claiming to engage in crypto or futures trading. And for a while, they delivered until the bubble burst. The exact origins of these platforms are hard to trace, but one thing is certain: they grew rapidly, thanks to aggressive marketing and word-of-mouth testimonials. The schemes offered daily profits, typically at a rate of 1 percent of the total investment. These returns were shared in real time, with trading signals dished out at specific hours of the day. The results were attractive, almost too good to be true. But in a country where economic hardship continues to push people toward quick money opportunities, skepticism was easily overridden by the testimonies of early beneficiaries. Indeed, many Nigerian...