Olarewaju David Folarin, CEO, Neris Global Enterprise, Ibadan, is on the run with over N500 million investors’ money. He left the company’s staff to face the heat of explanations and even arrest.
Folarin left his company’s WhatsApp group and has failed to show up at the office since April. He stopped answering calls for a while and then his number became unreachable. His last known location is an Estate in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Tope Babalola (not real name), a worker and investor with the enterprise, never expected to be caught up in the middle of a scam when she started a relationship with Neris in 2020.
She was introduced to the company by her sister. Neris promised to pay back capital with 20% return on investment every month and also gave people the chance to reinvest and withdraw later. Tope told FIJ that although she was sceptical at first, she eventually invested the money she had saved from her NYSC monthly stipends. After a few months, she received her money and profit as promised.
In February, after her service year, she joined the marketing team of the business. Soon, she worried the number of traders was inadequate.
“I asked my colleagues who had been working with the company about it and they said the CEO and a guy upstairs (we were downstairs) were trading. Also, they had traders in Lagos, who visited the office once in a while. I believed them, because it seemed genuine,” she said.
According to the business’ website, “Neris Global Enterprise is a 21st century investment services company specializing in setting up clients with the investment plans that will work best for them based on their financial needs and situation.”
Displayed on the website are a couple of plans, car investment scheme, school fees insurance, simple plan and compound plan, all with a minimum investment principal of N50,000. The company claimed to be registered with the CAC, and also to be made up of seasoned group of financial analysts, economists, forex traders and business strategists who worked round the clock.
