My Money Mistake is a weekly PiggyVest series that explores the worst money mistakes real Nigerians have made, and the lessons they learnt from it.
For this week’s episode of My Money Mistake, we spoke to a trader who lost money to a fraudulent cooperative society. She tells us about how it happened, why she has refused to report it, and the lessons she learnt.
Could you tell me about your money mistake?
Earlier this year, my cousin introduced me to a cooperative society that requires weekly contributions – ₦5,000 every week. It was supposed to run for 22 weeks, after which we’d all get our contributions. I was interested, so I signed up.
However, after joining, I learned that I would have to wait until the end of the cycle to receive my payment because I joined late. I understood that, so I waited patiently for my turn. But when the time came for me to receive my money, they started telling me stories about someone defaulting and an intermediary handling payments, among other things I didn’t really understand. That was in September.
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Have they reached out since then?
They haven’t. Some weeks ago, I approached my cousin, followed up, and insisted on being paid. She paid me ₦70k out of the total ₦110k I was due.
However, she kept telling me that the money she gave me is hers, and I just got it because I had waited this long. She said I would have to wait until I was paid by the cooperative society for the rest of the money. Till today, I haven’t been paid.
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Have you tried reaching out to the police?
I couldn’t go because my family member is involved, so it’s a family matter.
It really hurt me because the contributions were made from the profits we manage from the business.
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How’s your business?
Losing all that money affected me because it was supposed to be used to get even more things for my business, but thankfully, my store is around an active student community, and they’re currently in session. So that has helped with ensuring I have constant sales.
What lesson did you learn from this experience?
I’ve learnt to stay away from these cooperative societies and stick with my PiggyVest account.
I discovered PiggyVest in the middle of the whole thing, and it made me realise I could do the contributions by myself and even earn interest on it. My next payout on the app is due for December, and I’ve not had any withdrawal issues since I started using it.
