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Beware of scam! Nigeria’s central bank does not have an investment platform

IN SHORT: A number of Facebook pages claim to offer investment services under the name of the Central Bank of Nigeria. But beware! The central bank has distanced itself from all of the pages, warning Nigerians of scams.

Several Facebook pages have been created claiming to help Nigerians with their investments.

The pages have one thing in common – they all use the name of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The names of the pages vary from CBN Investment Platform and Nigeria CBN Helping Hand Investment Platform to CBN Helping Hand Trading Investment and CBN Helping Hand Trading Platform.

One August 2022 post reads: “Nigeria Central Bank Helping Hand Investment is a financial support to all Nigerian citizens. It's a place where you invest your money between two to three hours you also get your double income of what you invest but you can only invest once in a day.”

Another post claims “CBN Investment” is a network marketing business that will double your investment within “one hour to 45 minutes” and calls itself “a panacea for job creation and poverty alleviation”.

But are any of these a scheme of Nigeria’s central bank?

NigeriaBank_False

‘We have no affiliation with such online schemes’

Central banks across the world help their governments maintain economic and financial stability. 

Their functions include issuing currencies, acting as the government’s banker and as the custodian of cash reserves belonging to commercial banks.

In a statement posted on their social media page, the Central Bank of Nigeria said it is not affiliated to any of the Facebook pages offering too-good-to-be-true investment opportunities.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria wishes to dissociate itself from online schemes such as CBN Helping Hands Investment Programme purporting to be the bank's representative,” the bank’s statement read.

“Members of the public are therefore advised not to have any dealings with such unauthorised groups as they are not acting on behalf of the CBN."

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