Nigerians’ $700m entrapped in MMM goes down

The fear of many on the credibility of Mavrodi Mondial Money box (MMM) may have become true as more than $700 million belonging to Nigerians, who patronize the money spinning outfit has been entrapped.

According to the MMM International mangers, a renovation of the scheme will make it impossible for some participating countries, including Nigeria to have access to the scheme between December 15 and January 31, 2017.

There is already tension in major cities over the sad news of suspension of the operation as more than 50 per cent of the unemployed rely on MMM for relief, said a survey.

Said Miss Rose Ayoola, marketing official with a food processing company, who said she put in N200, 000 in the scheme, and that many people like her would be psychologically disorganized on hearing the news.

“I’m yet to reconcile myself with the announcement, which some of us heard since last week as a rumour until Monday when my link to the programme explained the reason for the temporary suspension to me.

“But my worry is, why is it this yuletide that the management of the scheme will come with such unpopular directive”.

For the officials of the scheme, the rush by Nigerians to pull their MMM deposits for the Christmas shopping is responsible for the near-crash that the system registered in the first week of December.

The scheme has received negative acceptance by the CBN and National Assembly, both of which asked the EFCC to arrest people promoting the scheme in Nigeria.

Plans may have to be revised as the alleged Ponzi scheme has frozen accounts of its participants in Nigeria for one month.

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The operators of the scheme said, in a message sent to all subscribers that the measure was put in place because the network is being upgraded, adding that customers would be compensated.

In an open letter to the Nigerian government recently, Mavrodi advised that MMM should be strengthened to help Nigerians thrive and redistribute wealth.

He insisted that MMM was not shady and that all participants were informed of the risks involved at the point of registration.

“The money is just redistributed among the citizens of Nigeria. It gets from those who are richer to poorer ones, in this way restoring social justice.

“What is wrong with that?” he was quoted as saying recently.

But some participants of the scheme are still hopeful that the freezing of their accounts, will be lifted before February 2017.

 

 

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