Thousands of Nigerians have lost their savings after the NRC investment scheme collapsed without warning, trapping millions of naira and leaving investors with no recourse. The platform, which operated under the name National Reading Culture, went dark earlier this month, prompting a wave of distress on social media as victims shared accounts of losing money set aside for school fees, rent and business capital.
Founded in 2023, NRC claimed to be headquartered in the United States and operated through the website nrc.cc, which is no longer accessible. The scheme positioned itself as a literacy initiative, requiring users to pay registration and VIP upgrade fees ranging from ₦18,900 to ₦174,000 before completing daily “reading” tasks to qualify for earnings and referral bonuses. In practice, it functioned as a classic Ponzi operation: new deposits funded returns for earlier investors, with no credible revenue model underpinning any of it.
The platform lured users with promises of doubling their money within weeks, with returns marketed as high as ₦6,000 daily and ₦25,000 weekly — figures that, in hindsight, should have set alarm bells ringing. Analysts had flagged the absence of any sustainable income stream capable of supporting such payouts, yet the warnings went largely unheeded.
A rebranded Chinese job site dressed up as a Nigerian literacy scheme
Online investigators have since revealed that NRC’s website previously operated as a Chinese job-search platform before being rebranded as a read-and-earn scheme targeting Nigerian users. To project legitimacy, the platform displayed a Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) registration certificate and number — a detail that persuaded many victims to part with their money. Whether that certificate was genuine or fabricated has not yet been confirmed by authorities.
The NRC collapse is the latest in a long line of fraudulent schemes that have preyed on Nigerians seeking alternatives to a difficult economic environment. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has separately warned the public against Voya Investment Management (VIM), another unauthorised online platform claiming to offer investment services in Nigerian stocks and other financial instruments. The Commission stated clearly that VIM has no licence to operate in Nigeria’s capital market. Investors would do well to verify any platform’s regulatory status with the SEC before committing a single naira.