Ceepass says their online payment system was hacked leading to the loss of a huge sum of money.
Investors of Ceepass; a digital bank for savings and investment, Viable X; export financing platform and Farm4me; a platform for contract farming in Nigeria (all manned by one man) have called out the CEO of the platforms, Adama J Adama as they request that their overdue funds be paid immediately.
Bittered by the continuous promise-and-fail by the firm to payout principal investment and the returns, investors who have continued to hold on to hope that they would one day wake up to a credit alert from the platforms appear to be out of patience.
For months, the investors have continued to suffer in silence, gaging their mouths for fear of losing out when government agencies become involved despite that the injury cuts deep every day.
“What good is the money when government sits on it?” They often argued.
Yet, promises continue to be broken and shattered to pieces, wearing out investors’ trust that they have no more to offer – after all pending bills have to be settled with real money and not on promises in reality.
For investors like Sopi (as identified on social media) who had to take a loan against his salary, added little savings and invested in ViableX and Ceepass, he only wanted to raise enough to care for his triplet, little did he know that that would be the biggest mistake of his life.
According to him, his investment with ViableX matured on the 13th of November 2021, and another in Ceepass matured on the 11th of January 2022. Up until now (as of the time of this report), nothing has been paid.
Similar to Sopi’s case, Mariam and other investors are going through trauma as a result of a lack of a clear-cut direction and continued silence on a specific payment date which is fueling suspense that the platform may be another ‘MMM’.
“He defaulted on my payment since December 2021, then sent a one-time communication in February tagging it January. We sent him a letter via email through all channels to ensure he talks to us as regards the timeline of the payment plan but there was no regard or response. Sincerely, we are running out of patience,” Mariam said, referencing a unanimous letter sent by the group of investors following an initial ‘Situation report on the business activities’ by Napoloen Chambers, the solicitor for Ceepass, Viable X and Farm4me.
In the letter by Napoleon Chambers, the solicitor stated that Ceepass, which is the hallmark business of the company suffered serious setbacks due to hacking of their online payment system leading to the loss of a huge sum of money. He added that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is currently conducting an investigation into the matter.
He also said the measure to utilize manual payment by the conglomerate occasioned some delays to payment to investors due to the huge volume of investors that require to be manually verified for payment.
Meanwhile, it stated in its undertaking, “In line with the terms of the duly executed contract binding between our clients and their numerous investors, our clients hereby vouch that no investor will lose his/her dime, our client will not rest in their effort.
It added, “To making sure all the monies due to all the investors’ entitlements would be fully liquidated not later than the end of March, 2022 and the third week of april 2022. This is an undertaking giving in absolute honour based on our clients’ track record and the effort on ground”
Unfortunately, up till the moment of writing this report, the company is yet to deliver as promised. According to investors, what’s more shocking is that in all of this, the CEO, Adama J Adama has failed to address investors and has blocked all channels through which he can be reached on social media.
In the letter written earlier in February by investors and seen by Nairametrics, investors had called out the CEO, requesting that the company communicates in a clear term to the completion of payments to all investors before/up until March, 2022 as well as set up a Zoom or Google Teams meeting for an interactive session with all convened for the explanation followed by a signed mail based on what was agreed upon which would be sent to all investors. But none of these recommendations have been met.
What the company is saying
In a phone call with the company’s manger for the Lagos Unit, Sunday Odachie, he consented that the business is currently facing challenging times but told Nairametrics that the company is working on how to resolve the challenges and pay out money to all the investors.
When asked about the specific pay day, he said, “At a point, the platform was hacked but we will all have to be patient as everything would be resolved very soon. We have stipulated time for payment in December, March ending and others, but we kept failing and the more we give time and fail, the more people bully us and get angry. So we are careful not to be specific on when we will deliver. It may be tomorrow or next week; it will just happen, we are very much in business.”
Commenting on what the company is doing to resolve the challenge, he said the platform is utilizing every means possible including seeking for grants and partnerships whilst also hinting to Nairametrics that the company is expecting export funds from the bank.
He said, “Our export proceeds are hanging in the banks. We have dollars hanging in there because of some proceeds that has not been done. You know anything that has to do with foreign transactions, sometimes there are hiccups along the line.”
On reasons for lack of communication, he said that the company has been reaching out to investors via SMS and emails all along.
“It is not true that we don’t pick calls. The customer careline is on. Our office in Ikeja is open as well but some investors would just come to social media and say we have locked up the office. Sometimes when they say we are not responding, I think it is the solution they are referring to. Once their money is not paid, they will say you are not responding,” he said.
Notably, Ceepass, Viable X and Farm4me are all linked as one, with Cesspass housing all. This means that every investor has an account on Ceepass. Hence, this explained why the three accounts were affected by the hack. However, one major concern is – if the account was hacked, are investors fund still intact?
Addressing the concern, Odachie said, “Investigations are still on and that would enable us to know the extent of damages. For now we cannot ascertain clearly the extent of the damages though we know they have tampered with funds. That aside we are legally binded by agreement to pay them whether there is a problem or not.”
Speaking on whether the principal will be paid alongside ROI, he noted that the agreement said if anything goes wrong, the least we can pay them is their principal investment. Meanwhile, he added that the company is yet to reach a decision on whether the capital alone will be paid or if returns will be added.
Bottom line
Crowdfunding in Nigeria has in recent times been going south fueling a rising feeling of pessimism over the crowdfunding industry in the country.
From Farm Power to Payfarmer, Goldvest, Emerald farms, Vestpay, H O Corn, FarmKonnect, Farm Sponsor and a list of endless ventures, these platforms known for funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people who contribute relatively small amounts, typically via the internet, have either defaulted or are delaying payments of investment funds, alongside Return on Investment (ROI) to investors.
You can read on why crowdfunding platforms in Nigeria are failing here
