Members of popular money doubling scheme MMM
Nigeria, plan to meet with the House of Representatives’ committees on
finance and banking and currency to seek for government’s recognition of
the scheme.
MMM community in Abuja, which is
coordinating the planned meeting, said it hopes to submit a proposal for
the amendment of the Banking and Other Financial Institutions Acts
(BOFIA) to legalise the operations of the scheme and similar money
initiatives in the country.
Chief Mike Chukwuma, a member of the committee
speaking to New Telegraph, said MMM has helped immensely in easing the
pains of recession.
He said instead of
discouraging Nigerians from participating in the financial self-help
scheme, the government should rather legalise its activities so that it
could be monitored and regulated.
“We, the
MMM family, are planning a meeting with the lawmakers in the House of
Representatives. We want to discuss with both the committee on finance
and that of banking and currency on the need to give MMM legal backing
in the country.
“I am a beneficiary and I can attest to the fact that MMM came as a
saviour to most of us; if not, the economic recession that this change
government brought would have consumed most families," he added.
Chukwuma speaking further on the agenda of the meeting said: “we
have engaged the services of financial experts and lawyers to draft a
bill, which is aimed at amending the BOFIA law. We are educated people
and we hope to engage the House members, being our representatives in
the National Assembly.
We are mobilising our members from all over the country and they will all send representatives.”
Chukwuma,
who said the interactive meeting would take place as soon as the
National Assembly reconvenes from the Christmas and New Year holiday,
explained that “at the moment, we are trying to establish contact with
the Banking and Currency Committee chair, Hon. Jones Onyereri and his
colleague in finance, and once we do that, we will reach an acceptable
date.”
Recall that last year November, the lower chamber passed a resolution seeking the abolition of the financial policy and probe of its promoters in the country.
The lawmakers said MMM scheme promoters are fraudsters exploiting Nigeria's current poor economic condition to defraud them.
A circular sent out to all users in the second week of December 2016, had said the account has been frozen for a month.
The
scheme put up a disclaimer on its website on Tuesday, December 13,
informing Nigerians of a temporary freeze on payments to existing
subscribers.
The scheme blamed a “heavy
workload” being experienced by its servers and the panic caused by the
Nigerian government and media for the development, but said it will be
back by mid-January, 2017.
