The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has declared that individuals promoting or operating prohibited investment schemes will face a minimum penalty of ₦20 million, a 10-year prison sentence, or both.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, SEC Director-General Emomotimi Agama explained that this penalty is part of the newly enacted Investments and Securities Act 2025, recently signed into law by President Bola Tinubu.
Agama emphasized that the new legislation strengthens Nigeria’s capital market regulatory framework, granting SEC the authority to take legal action against Ponzi scheme operators. He noted that, in the past, the commission lacked the legal backing to prosecute such offenders effectively.
He said the Act would help the commission to better protect investors and introduce reforms that would promote market integrity, transparency, and sustainable growth.He said, ”So, N20 million is not the entire penalty or the entire money that will be charged or sanctioned to any suspecting or any accused capital market or non-capital market operator.”
It is just part of the penalties and or the sanctions that will be meted against such persons.”Any profits or gains obtained from defrauding Nigerians will be recovered because it is not about the quantum of the fraud, it is about sanctions that will deter people from even getting into it.”
We recognise that a lot of Nigerians have fallen prey to these schemes and the reason why that is the case is because there were no sanctions.”Protecting the investors in Nigeria is a cardinal responsibility of SEC, and this law has provided the SEC with stronger powers to be able to do that.”
Agama said the Act had also introduced transformative provisions to further align Nigeria’s market operations with international best practices. The ISA 2025 repealed the Investments and Securities Act No. 29 of 2007.Source : https://punchng.com/
