The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has attributed the underdevelopment of Africa to illicit financial flow in the continent through virtual asset fraud.

The chairman disclosed this during the commemoration of the Africa Anti-Corruption Day with a lecture themed :UNDERSTANDING VIRTUAL ASSETS AND INVESTMENT FRAUD,” held in Maiduguri.

He warned that virtual asset fraud is spreading like wildfire on the continent as a result of the existence of many dishonest schemes.

Ola Olukoyede, represented by Aisha Habib, EFCC Zonal Directorate Maiduguri and Yobe States, urged youths and students that every exploitation of investors in any guise is considered a fraudulent act. Ponzi schemes rank as one of the most pervasive of such acts.

She maintained, “What we did today is to highlight the prevalence of digital and investment fraud and the intricacies of some fraudsters and money laundering using digital means to defraud people with legitimate resources.

“Investment fraud, like virtual asset fraud, spreads like fire across Africa. Fraudsters are exploiting vulnerabilities of desperate investors to defraud them through various dishonest schemes.

According to her, “Africa continues to be assailed by the scourge of corruption in diverse ways. The issue of illicit financial flows is a monstrous challenge to African development, with annual losses running into billions of dollars. These flows are coming from diverse criminal activities, with money laundering ranking as the highest.

She added, “Another rising criminal engagement that has the potential to outpace even money laundering on the continent is virtual assets and investment scams. In simplified language, virtual assets are digital representations of monetary values that operate on blockchain and that can be traded, exchanged, or transferred for payment or investment purposes. They are cryptocurrencies, digital tokens operating on ledger technology.

“It is important to clearly state that virtual assets are not fundamentally criminal. It is when they are wrongfully or fraudulently used that they become criminal. Technology is moving at a supersonic speed around the world. The advent of virtual assets is a response to one of the qualities of money as a store of value. However, as with every progressive innovation, fraudsters usually evolve ways of perverting their genuine purposes.

She assured that the commission is up to its duty and will continue to discharge them accordingly.

“For us at the EFCC, virtual asset fraud and investment scams are not hard nuts to crack. Proactive and broad-based training and intelligence are bringing fraudulent schemes to the fore. We are ahead in every material sense, and there are enormous proofs of operational successes in this regard, especially the breakthrough in investigation and prosecution of the infamous CBEX scam.

“The EFCC is always at work to engage every stakeholder in its preventive and investigative activities. Virtual assets and investment fraud, like other fraudulent activities, are preventable. The escape route is adequate knowledge and understanding of issues involved,” she assured.

Stakeholders at the event included ICPC, academics, heads of security agencies, CSOs, students, business community members, and corps members, among others.