Ghana’s financial sector has experienced a lot of Ponzi schemes and revocation of licenses of insolvent savings and loans companies, financial houses, microfinance and banking institutions between 2015 and 2019.
Ponzi schemes are fraudulent investment opportunities that promise high rates of return with low investment instruments which are mostly run online.
These institutions offered interest rates higher than the base rate of 24 or 25 per cent per annum offered by government securities, which were risk free.
These unsustainable investment instruments attracted some users of financial services in Ghana to invest in them.
These financial service users were interested in allowing their assets to work for them rather than working with their assets.
Bank of Ghana shut down these institutions in 2015, as, their activities contravene the rules of Bank of Ghana and some were unlicensed.
Most Ghanaians have suffered one loss or another from such Ponzi schemes amidst warnings from the Bank of Ghana.
Beach News Room in an interview with some residents in the Metropolis, reveal what will influence their decision to join online investment schemes.
They say the need for money in such an economic recession mainly will influence them to venture into such investments.
“I will only invest in an online investment if they been in business for three months. This is because such investments mostly don’t stay in business for long. Immediately, they meet their target, they leave “
“For me, the interest rate is what I consider before investing in online investment. If I invest thousand cedis and get two thousand in the end, I would gladly take the risk. In business, we invest to gain but not to lose. The economy is hard and so any investment that will bring me money, I’m in.”
“The promise that comes with it that when I put my money into the scheme, I’m going to get double or triple of what I invested.”
