Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has named AfriQuatum, with a claimed worth of N76 billion, as a Ponzi scheme.

The regulator also urged the public to be cautious about investing with the firm.

SEC disclosed this in a recent statement.

According to the SEC, any person who places an investment or engages with the entity does so at his or her own risk, adding that its operations exhibit characteristics commonly associated with fraudulent Ponzi schemes.

READ ALSO:SEC Warns Nigerians Over AI-generated Investment Scams

“The attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission has been drawn to the activities of AfriQuantumX, which holds itself out as an investment platform trading on and selling cryptocurrency and stocks to investors in Nigeria.

“The Commission hereby informs the public that AfriQuantumX is not registered by the Commission either to solicit investments from the public or operate in any capacity within the Nigerian capital market,” SEC stated.

Nigerians have expressed concern over another hike in the price of cooking gas, with a kilogram now selling for as high as ₦2,000 in some parts of the country.

According to gas marketers, the increase has little to do with any official price adjustment.

The Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers has attributed the surge in cooking gas price to temporary supply disruptions and market exploitation by some operators.

The association’s National President, Oladapo Olatunbosun, stated this on Wednesday while speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

He said there had been no official increment in the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, blaming the hike on opportunistic marketers taking advantage of supply gaps caused by the recent strike by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria against the Dangote Refinery.

READ ALSO:Dangote Refinery Dispute: PENGASSAN Suspends Strike After FG Intervention

He said, “I sympathise with Nigerians as the President of NALPGAM because we never intended to have a situation like this.

“I must say it categorically that prices of cooking gas have not gone up. No increment has been done officially.

“What is happening is that some marketers are taking advantage of the shortage in supply and the market forces that have increased demand. They are cashing up to make good money, which is wrong.

“We frown at this as an Association, and I’m happy that by the grace of God, normalcy will return in the next few days.”

Channels TV reports that prices of LPG, which previously averaged between ₦1,200 and ₦1,300 per kilogram, have in recent days risen to between ₦1,700 and ₦2,000, and as high as ₦3,000 in some areas.

READ ALSO:Dangote Hits Out At PENGASSAN, Says Union ‘Serial Saboteurs, Serving Oligarchs’

Olatunbosun explained that the current situation was artificial and temporary, noting that normal supply and pricing were expected to stabilise in the coming days.

He said the problem began when Dangote Refinery, which had previously improved domestic supply by eliminating middlemen, embarked on maintenance and renovation that slowed truck loading.

He stated, “Before the strike, when you load from Dangote, he sends out about 50 trucks per day, which is good because it served the South West and some part of the North well, and if you add it to what you get from Apapa, and other depots in Lagos, because they also source their products from IOCs and other producers.

“Dangote came in with his own strategy, selling directly to offtakers. That made importation not to be attractive. You won’t be able to compete if you import because you are likely to incur losses.

“But at a time, Dangote also commenced renovation/maintenance, which affected loading. Trucks started spending like 14 days at Dangote yard before they could get products.

“So, marketers switched to Apapa, and nobody felt the impact.”

READ ALSO:Fuel Scarcity Looms As PENGASSAN Stops Gas, Crude Supply To Dangote Refinery

According to him, while the refinery was undergoing maintenance, marketers turned to Apapa depots for supply, but the subsequent PENGASSAN strike disrupted vessel discharges and inspections, drying up stocks.

“When Dangote finished renovation, and we were about to commence full loading, the strike came in. Although Dangote didn’t stop production, everybody had rushed to Apapa, and it was now out of product, and all the depots there were dry.

“The only vessel that came in from NOJ axes was meant to supply three depots could not berth because of the strike. And even when it berthed, the officers to inspect it weren’t on the ground because of the strike, and that caused about five days’ loss, and the real impact of the backlog became obvious.

“Now that the strike is off, the product has been discharged, and they are trucking out. But because everywhere is dry and the South West is the only place that consumes the largest amount of LPG in Nigeria,” he added.

He said the backlog from the delay worsened the scarcity, particularly in the South-West, which he said consumes the largest share of LPG in Nigeria.

Olatunbosun added that the country’s national LPG consumption had increased from about 1.2 million metric tonnes three years ago to nearly two million metric tonnes, further straining supply whenever there were disruptions.

READ ALSO:Over 600 Pilgrims Hospitalised After Chlorine Gas Leaked In Iraq

He advised consumers to buy directly from registered gas plants, noting that those buying through middlemen or third parties were likely to pay inflated prices.

Olatunbosun said, “If you buy a product from a third party, fourth party, the chain has been extended, then the price is going up, which is quite illegal. Just like you buy petrol on the road for people who carry kegs, they will sell it at exorbitant prices. So if you go to gas plants, the price you can buy today is 1,300 maximum.

“People who are claiming to buy gas at 1700 did not disclose the source of their purchase. If you are buying from a third or fourth party, then catch on, and the prices increase.

“But if you buy from gas bottling plants, my members, you will not buy as high as that. Average price within my members in Southwest today is between N1000 to maximum of N1300, depending on the location and the kind of overhead they incur to get the gas into the plant. Before this artificial scarcity, the prices were being sold at 1,050 in some places, N950. So the highest you could get from a gas plant today is N1300, depending on if it’s a very remote area.”

The NALPGAM president assured Nigerians that the association was working with relevant authorities to stabilise supply.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced sweeping regulations to take control of the Nigerian fixed income market.

The regulations expected to begin in November are aimed at boosting transparency across Nigeria’s financial sector.
The apex bank disclosed this in a recent statement.

CBN noted that the intervention is a key part of broader financial market reforms.

READ ALSO:CBN Establishes New Unit To Tackle Financial Crime

Accordingly, it said its core objective is to enhance regulatory oversight and strengthen the market’s ability to effectively support the transmission of monetary policy and, ultimately, foster economic growth.

“This transition will enable the CBN to assume direct responsibility for the management of the trading platform and handle end-to-end settlement activities under the bank’s established settlement system for financial market transactions,” the statement read.

According to DAILY POST, Fixed income securities refer to investments which provide a return in the form of fixed periodic interest payments and the eventual return of the principal at maturity.