Nigerians who invested from tens of thousands to millions of naira in the online platform PXES are counting their losses after the scheme reportedly stopped paying returns and became inaccessible.
The platform, which attracted participants with promises of unusually high returns from online tasks and digital marketing activities, reportedly stopped payments in early September.
Some investors said they could no longer withdraw their funds or reach the platform’s operators.
According to a report by The Punch Newspaper,the collapse has triggered anger in parts of the country, with aggrieved investors reportedly storming PXES offices in Adamawa and Kogi states and removing office equipment in attempts to recover their money.
The development has renewed concerns about the spread of investment schemes that promise exceptionally high returns while relying heavily on online recruitment and referral networks.
Investors lured by high returns
Several investors said they joined PXES after seeing friends and acquaintances receive payments from the platform.
Promotional materials reviewed by Saturday PUNCH showed packages starting from N21,600, with other packages priced at N64,800 and N207,000.
The materials claimed that an investment of N21,600 could generate as much as N259,200 over 360 days, while N64,800 could yield up to N777,600 over the same period.
Reports from participants also indicated that some packages promised returns ranging between 25 per cent and 50 per cent, with claims of returns as high as 120 per cent in some cases. Saturday PUNCH said it could not independently verify all the reported returns.
For some victims, the early payments appeared to validate the scheme.
Bunmi Awodipe said three friends showed her evidence of receiving returns before she invested N200,000.
She said she received N7,000 weekly for three weeks before payments stopped.
“When I went to their office last week, I didn’t see anyone. The place was locked and there was nothing in the office. Everything was removed,” she said.
Another investor, Deji Mulero, said he registered with N65,000 after a customer introduced him to the platform on September 4.
He said the platform stopped operating that same week, leaving him with no opportunity to recover his money.
For 68-year-old Jumoke Talabi, the loss was even more painful. She said she invested N64,800 after seeing other participants receive payments.
She had already received N70,000 from the platform and subsequently increased her investment, hoping to use the proceeds for her granddaughter’s school expenses and household needs.
“I was meant to collect N18,000 before school resumes,” she said, adding that she eventually lost access to her money.
How the PXES model worked
Interviews with participants and promotional materials indicated that PXES operated a tiered membership system.
Participants paid specified amounts to join and were given access to an online dashboard where they completed daily tasks described as “orders.”
Participants identified different membership levels, including Star 1, Star 2 and Star 3, with entry amounts of about N21,600, N54,800 and N207,000 respectively.
According to one participant, members interacted with products displayed on the dashboard and were rewarded for completing the assigned tasks.
The platform initially allowed daily withdrawals, participants said, but later moved to weekly withdrawals as membership expanded.
The model also involved introducing new participants and building networks, creating an additional recruitment incentive.
One participant said a relative who had built a larger network lost more than N1 million after the platform stopped paying.
Investment platform or digital marketing company?
PXES representatives have described the organisation as a digital marketing and advertising company, rather than an investment platform.
At an event in Kabba, a company representative, Olubowale Ayodele, said PXES provided digital marketing opportunities to unemployed people and graduates.
He encouraged people with smartphones to participate in the activities and claimed that one member of his team earned N700,000 weekly.
Another official, identified as the company’s training director, Eniola Oluwatobi, described PXES as an advertising company that partnered with businesses and distributed products to members through its application for advertising purposes.
However, the collapse and the experiences of investors have raised questions about the underlying business model and how the returns promised to participants were generated.
Regulatory questions emerge
The situation has also raised questions about whether PXES was authorised to solicit investment funds from members of the public.
Financial analyst George Samuel advised Nigerians to verify the regulatory status of any organisation before committing funds.
He stressed that registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission does not, by itself, amount to a licence to collect deposits or solicit investment funds from the public.
“While a Corporate Affairs Commission number may be necessary, it does not serve as a licence to accept deposits or investment funds,” Samuel said.
He urged prospective investors to look for the relevant regulatory licence and conduct basic due diligence before committing their money.
Banker Kemi Junaid identified unusually high or guaranteed returns as another major warning sign.
She said financial desperation and limited financial literacy often made people vulnerable to schemes promising quick and substantial profits.
According to her, investors should ask a fundamental question before committing their money: how does the business actually generate the returns it promises?
EFCC asks victims to report scams
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said it would investigate reported cases of financial crime and investment scams brought before it.
EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale said victims must formally report cases to enable the commission to act.
He said the commission had repeatedly warned Nigerians about investment scams and Ponzi schemes and urged members of the public to conduct proper due diligence.
The EFCC, however, did not confirm that it had opened a specific investigation into PXES.
PXES website becomes inaccessible
The collapse has also been accompanied by signs that the platform’s online presence has weakened.
An attempt by Saturday PUNCH to access the known PXES website was unsuccessful. Some investors also reported that its WhatsApp channel had been blocked.
Checks of the platform’s Facebook page showed that its last post was made on June 21.
The page had previously been used to publicise training sessions, meetings, team-building activities and claims about PXES’ expansion across Nigeria and other African countries.
Another Ponzi warning for Nigerians
The PXES crisis follows a series of investment schemes that have collapsed after attracting Nigerians with promises of exceptional returns.
In April 2025, the collapse of Crypto Bridge Exchange, popularly known as CBEX, reportedly affected hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, with losses estimated at about N1.3tn.
CBEX had promised investors 100 per cent returns after 30 days through purported artificial-intelligence-powered trading. The Securities and Exchange Commission later said the platform and its affiliates were not registered to operate as a digital asset exchange or solicit investments from Nigerians.
The SEC also said its preliminary investigation found that the platform created a false perception of legitimacy and promised implausibly high guaranteed returns.
Another platform, EMAAR, reportedly collapsed later in 2025 after attracting more than 4,000 investors through supposed real-estate investments. Suspected losses were subsequently put at nearly N3bn.
In May 2026, another platform, XM Future Music Group, reportedly collapsed after investors were unable to withdraw their funds. Its entry packages reportedly ranged from N21,600 to several million naira.
The pattern is increasingly familiar: aggressive recruitment, attractive early payments, promises of extraordinary returns, referral incentives, withdrawal difficulties and, eventually, a collapse.
The bigger lesson
The PXES episode highlights a recurring vulnerability in Nigeria’s financial system: people under intense financial pressure are often willing to accept extraordinary risks in search of extraordinary returns.
Early payments can create an illusion of legitimacy and encourage investors to commit more money or recruit family members and friends.
But a payment received in the early stages of a scheme does not prove that the underlying business is sustainable.
For investors, the most important questions should be whether the operator is properly licensed, what business generates the promised returns, whether the returns are economically realistic and whether there is a transparent mechanism for withdrawing funds.
The latest PXES crisis therefore goes beyond the losses suffered by individual investors.
It is another warning that financial desperation, aggressive online recruitment and promises of extraordinary returns can create a dangerous combination for Nigerian households.
For regulators, it also underscores the need for stronger public education, faster identification of suspicious platforms and effective enforcement against entities that illegally solicit funds from the public.
For Nigerians, the warning is simpler:
If the returns appear too good to be true, the first question should not be how quickly to invest. It should be where the money is coming from.
