Business

CBEX: Nigerians lose N1.3tn as digital trading platform crashes

Published

1 year ago

April 15, 2025

506 Views

Nigerians have taken to their various social media platforms to lament their losses after a digital asset trading platform, known as CBEX, allegedly swept over N1.3 trillion from investors’ accounts on Monday.

This comes as CBEX, operating without legal approval from the Nigeria Securities Commission, crashed on Monday after the money in their investors’ wallets vanished.

The digital platform also locked its Telegram channels and postponed withdrawals while offering investors the option of $2,000 for $200 verification and $1,000 for $100 verification.

The development has sparked condemnations from Nigerians on X.

Explaining the CBEX crash, cryptocurrency expert and security analyst Taiwo Owolabi said the total volume of stolen investors’ funds so far in USDT is $847 million and likely to increase.

Owolabi questioned why Nigerians would invest their money in a digital platform that is unregistered by the SEC with the promise of a 100 percent return on investment.

They designed the weak website to convince people in the future that it was a security breach that affected them.

Apparently, when you make payments, you pay them into a TRX account, and then, immediately, they move it from that TRX wallet, gather it, convert it to USDT, and then to ETH. So, when you are logging into your account, there is literally no money on your profile.

“What you see are just numbers. All the daily activities you do to ‘trade’ increase your money. All the AI trading is fake. When it’s time for withdrawal, they will send you another person’s money,” Owolabi explained on an X space.

Similarly, Steve Fred, a user on X, wrote on Tuesday:

“Are we not just fantastically stupid in Nigeria?

“Nigerians are as gullible as their leaders. How many times will they be scammed before they have sense?

“How can a company like ‘CBEX’ just appear from thin air and promise you 100 percent ROI in 1 month, and you begin to invest?”

Another user, known on X as Oku, reacting to the CBEX crash, said: “The smaller the profit, the more I TRUST YOU.

“You have no business doing a business that promises you 50 percent to 100 percent ROI.

”The development comes after the SEC recently warned Nigerians to stay clear of unregistered trading platforms.

The SEC particularly pointed out that, in accordance with the ISA 2025 recently signed by President Bola Tinubu, it is now an offense for any entity to operate an online forex trading platform or provide related services without prior registration with the commission.

“By virtue of this act, it is an offense in Nigeria for any entity that is not registered by the commission to carry out the business of online foreign exchange trading platforms or related services.

“Any business entity planning to set up a business in any of these areas is advised to visit the HOD DRM Department of the commission for further direction on how to register with the commission to avoid sanctions,” it added.

Business

Cardoso Urges Banks To Lend Out Idle Funds With CBN * Retains MPR at 26.5%

Cardoso made the call on Tuesday after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja from July 20 to July 21.

Published

24 minutes ago

July 21, 2026

OCHEFA

7 Views

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Olayemi Cardoso , urged banks from keeping idle funds with the apex bank and encouraging increased lending into the economy.

Cardoso made the call on Tuesday after the 306th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in Abuja from July 20 to July 21.

The apex bank retained the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), also known as benchmark interest rate, at 26. 5 percent.

This decision marks the second consecutive retention of the MPR at 26.5 per cent, following a 50-basis-point reduction in February from 27 per cent.

“The committee’s decision to maintain the current policy stand follows a thorough assessment of the balance of risk,” said Cardoso.

He emphasised that although headline inflation moderated marginally in June 2026, global uncertainties have heightened due mainly to the renewed hostilities in the Middle East.

The MPC also adjusted the asymmetric facilities corridor around the MPR to +50/-450 basis points—a move aimed at discouraging banks from keeping idle fund with CBN.

Furthermore, the committee maintained the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for commercial banks at 45 per cent, retained the rate for merchant banks at 16 per cent, and kept the CRR on non-TSA public-sector deposits at 75 per cent for liquidity management considerations.

Cardoso said despite the global uncertainties, the Nigerian economy has “remained largely resilient to the external shocks”.

Business

CBN admits it opened domiciliary accounts for PFIPC agency

Represented by the Director of its Banking Services Department, Hamisu Ibrahim, the CBN said that the accounts are one in US dollars, the other in British pounds sterling, were opened following a mandate received from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Published

9 hours ago

July 21, 2026

OCHEFA

16 Views

File photo : PFIPC agency DG, Adeniyi Adeyemi

The Central Bank of Nigeria had admitted that it opened two foreign-currency domiciliary accounts for the controversial Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council (PFIPC).

The apex bank made the confirmation, yesterday, during the public hearing convened at the National Assembly Complex by the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating the existence and operations of the PFIPC, chaired by Yusuf Gagdi and inaugurated by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

He explained that on July 30, 2025, CBN received a mandate dated July 29, 2025 from the Office of the Accountant-General.

“We received the mandate to authorise two accounts, one a US dollar domiciliary account, the other a pound domiciliary account, for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Investment Promotion Council,” Ibrahim told the committee.

He explained the CBN’s verification process, “The process of opening an account requires a mandate from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

“Once we receive that mandate, we perform all the necessary verifications to confirm that this mandate is actually coming from that office.

The department that handles the mandate is different from the department that actually does the account opening,” he said.

Nevertheless, he noted that no one came to activate the accounts after they were opened.“We did not receive any correspondence, mandate, signature or mandate cards. We were not introduced to the authorising or approving officers.“Based on that, those accounts remain inactive, with zero balance. There have been no foreign exchange allocations.