ISA 2025: Ponzi schemes promoters in Nigeria now face 10 years jail term—SEC DG 

Agama stated this on Tuesday during an Arise TV interview, where he spoke extensively about the new ISA.

According to him, until now, the Commission had no legal backing to prosecute Ponzi scheme operators, adding that this had made it difficult to bring them to justice.

“With the new law, they now face a 10-year jail term and beyond,” the SEC DG stated.

Aside from the sentencing, Agama said anyone caught operating a Ponzi scheme in Nigeria would also be made to pay a N40 million penalty according to the law.

Responding to the question of whether the N40 million penalty would be enough punishment for someone who had defrauded people of billions, the SEC DG said:

“So, N40 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. 

“One of the basic things around sanctions is that there will be disgorgement, and disgorgement means that we are going to make sure that every profit and every gain that has been achieved in the process of defrauding Nigerians will be gotten back.  

“It is not about the quantum of the fraud, it is about sanctions that would deter people from even getting into it.  

“The new law provides the SEC the powers to be able to do that and even more to go after these people, bring them to book and make sure that we are able to restitute the citizens as long as much as possible.” 

Besides the prosecutorial power, Agama said the new ISA has also provided the SEC with the power to be able to obtain and request telephone conversations and all other conversations that are required to prosecute Ponzi scheme operators.

Naijaonpoint recently reported that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had signed into law the Investment and Securities Act (ISA) 2025, marking a major milestone in Nigeria’s capital market reform.