BoG governor, others to speak on Ponzi schemes

In the wake of people being duped through the upsurge of ponzi schemes in the country, Media General will on Thursday organise a forum on the canker that has caused loss of thousands of cedis to the unsuspecting public.

The forum, being spearheaded by 3 Business, the business desk of Media General, is on the theme: “Has Ghana learnt any lessons and what is the way forward?”

Governor of the Bank of Ghana Dr. Ernest Addison, private legal practitioner Ace Ankomah, and Vice president of IMANI Africa Kofi Bentil and Director General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Daniel Ogbarmey Tetteh will put the issues of ponzi schemes in perspective and proffer solutions to it.

A Ponzi scheme is a form of fraud in which the unsuspecting public is tricked to invest in a non-existent company, with the promise of offering them ridiculous percentage as their investment returns.

In order to build the scheme, the fraudsters pay earlier investors using funds from new investors, which entice more people to join.

Over the years, such schemes in Ghana have promised an investment rate of not less than 50 per cent. A case in point is the DKM Microfinance that promised investors a 60% return within a period of two months.

The collapse of ponzi schemes in the country over the last 20 years has not only caused loss of money but also ruined lives.

It was reported that about 50 people in the Brong Ahafo region committed suicide in the DKM quagmire.

Despite people being scammed daily through these ponzi schemes, people looking for high returns keep investing in those schemes.

While the saying might be true that “higher risks, higher returns,” certainly not every risk is worth an investment choice.