In what can either be described as foolish overconfidence, the penchant for disregarding warning signs has been attributed to the easy way in which Nigerians fall for ponzi scheme over the years.
According to Mr Luca Constantinescu, the CEO of Rally Trade, an international online broker providing highly competitive brokerage services to emerging markets, Nigerians fell for Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox (MMM), a ponzi scheme, for instance, because they ignored all the warning signs.
Constantinescu, who stated this during the launch of its new partner program and website recently in Lagos, said the warning signs were clear.
His words: “Nigerians have fallen victims of scams over and over again and they still fell for MMM.It wasn’t a company registered in Nigeria, with no Nigerian management staff. We will do our best to warn you but at the end of the day, what you do with your money is your decision.”
Assuring investors that forex trading is not the same as ponzi schemes, Constantinescu said the company had to seek regulation outside the country to ensure the security of investor fund.
“The Nigerian government doesn’t have regulatory requirements for us. They do not know if we fall under the Aboki business, which we don’t or trade under the Nigerian Stock Exchange but we are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission.There is no regulation for forex trading in Nigeria today so we have sought regulation outside the country to give clients some security.We make money on price differences. We don’t deal with gamblers, we cater to investors and traders. Clients trade on the price difference. We have currencies, commodities. Traders make money on price differences too,” he stated.
The company’s Head of Operations, Kolawole Okeowo, said the partner program that was recently introduced enables its partners to earn based on their introduction of sub-partners up to three tiers.
With effect from this Friday, August 1, the new return system will ensure that direct clients get 60 per cent of the net spread, 15 per cent of net spread for tier two clients and five per cent for tier three clients.
“We are a big advocate of multiple streams of income. One of the streams available in trading is our partnership program. What we initially had was a single tier.We are doing this to help Nigerians become financially free. We were the first broker to offer naira based trading platform. We still do,” he stated.