Nigerians who invested millions of naira in an online investment platform, PXES, are counting their losses after the scheme abruptly stopped paying returns and became inaccessible to its teeming subscribers.
Payments to participants reportedly stopped in early September, leaving investors who had committed sums ranging from tens of thousands to millions of naira unable to withdraw their funds.
The development triggered outrage among affected investors, with some reportedly storming PXES offices in Adamawa and Kogi states, carting away chairs, tables and other office items in a bid to recoup their losses.
The platform had drawn subscribers with promises of unusually high returns, with some packages advertised as offering between 25 and 50 per cent, while others promised as much as 120 per cent.
In Yola, Adamawa State, and Kabba, Kogi State, aggrieved investors thronged the company’s offices after withdrawals became impossible. Videos circulating online showed people carrying off furniture and equipment from the firm’s premises in Yola, with similar scenes reported at its Kabba branch. In one clip, a man said to have invested about ₦209,000 was heard bemoaning his inability to retrieve his money.
Before the Kabba office reportedly shut its doors, its manager had sent investors a message pledging compensation for their patience. However, investors said the office was locked up about three days later, leaving them with no information on the operators or their money.
One investor, Bunmi Awodipe, said friends had persuaded her to join after showing her proof of payments they had received. She invested ₦200,000 and got weekly returns of ₦7,000 for three weeks before the payments stopped. When she visited the office afterwards, she found it locked and stripped bare.
Another participant, Deji Mulero, said a customer introduced him to the platform on September 4. He registered with ₦65,000, and the platform crashed the same week, wiping out his investment.
An investor identified only as Wale said he put in ₦207,000 and had accumulated close to ₦600,000 on his dashboard before the platform went under, having been introduced to the scheme by a friend in Abuja.
For 68-year-old Jumoke Talabi, the investment was meant to cover her granddaughter’s school fees and other household needs. She had invested ₦64,800 after watching other participants get paid, having previously received ₦70,000 from the platform. She was expecting a fresh payout when withdrawals were due but got nothing. She said poverty had driven her to invest, hoping the returns would help her buy food and pay school fees. She added that the collapse had left some of her friends devastated, with one unable to stop crying over her losses.
How Investors Were Recruited
According to Shola Adeshina, whose wife also invested in the platform, stories of participants using their earnings to buy cars and build houses helped draw in more people. He said concern grew after investors who had sunk millions into the scheme visited one of its offices, only to reportedly find it abandoned.
Interviews with participants and promotional materials show that PXES ran a tiered membership scheme, with subscribers paying different amounts to gain access to an online dashboard where they carried out daily “orders” or tasks.
One participant, Funmi Deinde, said the platform had membership levels including Star 1, Star 2 and Star 3, with entry packages of ₦21,600, ₦54,800 and ₦207,000. She explained that joining with any of these amounts secured a dashboard account from which members took daily orders, which involved clicking on highlighted household items, though products were not physically supplied. She said withdrawals were initially processed daily, ranging from as little as ₦1,500 to as much as ₦100,000, before the platform later moved to a weekly withdrawal system tied to members’ investment levels.
Another participant, Emmanuel Ajayi, said the ₦64,000 package generated about ₦2,160 daily from tasks, while the ₦21,600 package yielded about ₦720. Promotional materials reviewed showed that a ₦21,600 investment was projected to generate as much as ₦259,200 over 360 days, while ₦64,800 could yield up to ₦777,600 in the same period — returns several times higher than the initial capital invested. Participants said the platform also encouraged members to recruit new investors to build networks.
A security guard, who did not want to be named, said he had initially hesitated before joining on his sister’s persuasion, eventually investing ₦64,000. He withdrew about ₦20,000 on two occasions before payments stopped, leaving the rest of his money stuck. He added that his sister, who had built a larger network on the platform, lost more than ₦1 million after its collapse.
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