Naomi Richard (not real name), an Abuja-based social worker, has narrated how she lost N4 million to Farmsponsor, an Agric-tech company founded by Bill Kenneth and Chike Akpa Globetrot.

Naomi, who was introduced to Farmsponsor and Agropartnerships in 2021 after a financial literacy class, said that she felt confident the companies were genuine because they were recommended by Money Africa, the organiser of the class.

“I invested the sum of N4 million with Farmsponsor and 570 thousand naira with Agropartnerships for their poultry project,” said Naomi.

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“Shortly after, I felt uncomfortable because something didn’t feel right. I checked their social media pages and saw complaints from people saying they had not been paid.

“So, I wrote to Farmsponsor that I was no longer interested and wanted a refund, because that is where the chunk of my money is.”

Naomi told FIJ that after two attempts with no replies, she decided to wait some months more.

“The news broke out after three months that they had not been paying people whose investments had matured,” she said.

“We tried reaching out to them; we had representatives, me and other investors.

“They told us that the company was underperforming because of the effect of COVID-19 from the previous year and the new regulations by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) that stopped crowdfunding.

“They kept giving excuses. It was just stories upon stories.”

Naomi also explained that the company gradually paid those who invested about N50,000 after a couple of weekly meetings.

“They said they were going to pay off everyone gradually, starting with the smallest amounts. So we put pressure on them to commit to a payment plan, which they did,” she said.

“They pleaded for more time and that they would pay back in November of the same year (2021), as against August, the time for the actual payout.

“We waited till November, but they didn’t keep to their promise.”

‘THE LEGAL ROUTE’

Naomi explained to FIJ that the delays and excuses made them opt for a legal route. We, the investors, contracted the services of Aliko and Oyebode after an initial payment agreement, and this made Farmsponsor hire a lawyer.

“After we contracted a lawyer, they stopped paying the few people they were paying and stopped attending meetings, saying that since we’d engaged the services of a lawyer, they would no longer be having communications with us to prevent anything they would say from being taken out of context,” said Naomi.

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She further explained that the organisation became completely silent.

Bill Kenneth Akpan, the CEO, always assured her that she would get her money back. She, however, said she was unable to reach him because he later blocked her line. She further revealed that she made efforts to reach his wife but also got blocked.

“No significant progress has been made ever since, even with the court’s involvement. The last meeting we held was in February, and they were still talking about filing the case,” said Naomi.

“I also wrote a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but nothing changed. I still haven’t got my money.

“It seems every legal means to get my money back isn’t forthcoming and this has really affected me.”

She also noted that it had been the same futile effort with Agropartnerships, despite the involvement of lawyers and SEC. 

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According to her, both cases were handled by Tochukwu Anaenugwu, a member of the Aluko and Oyebode’s Litigation and Arbitration Practice.

FIJ’s calls and texts to Farmsponsor, Agropartnerships and Tochukwu Anaenugwu had not been responded to at press time.