Dar es Salaam. Over 300 people have been left counting losses worth billions of shillings that they invested in Bestway Capital Management (BCM), an investment company in the city and now are
calling for state organs intervention into the matter.Available information shows that for
one to become an investor the initial capital required to invest was at least
Sh23 million ($10,000) with a promise of a juicy 6 percent monthly interest on
their investment.
Rough estimates put the initial
capital for the 300 investors at Sh6.9 billion for the base capital investment.
Most of the affected are pensioners
who hoped to reap from their retirement benefits, but this was not to be, for
some received only payments for a few months and that was it!
Speaking in Dar es Salaam, Charles
Kapongo, said the fate of his investment in BCM remains a mystery, claiming
that he invested millions of cash in the company (without mentioning the exact
amount ) after he was promised that he would be paid a six percent monthly
interest.
He said that he was only paid for
eight months and now it has been more than a year since he was last paid,
something that has left him guessing on the fate of the cash that he invested
in the capital management company.
"Most people who put their
money in the investment scheme are old people, retired because we used to tell
each other about the opportunity, but it's like we are fed up now. Others are
big names and famous businessmen; they can't just show up here but those young
people have cheated us a lot of our savings," he claimed.
Kapongo says that he invested in the
company in 2020 and in the first six months all went according to plan
but as days went by they began to delay payments sending diubts among the
investors who started suspecting that they had been taken for a ride
The management called for a meeting
to allay their fears regarding the delayed payments but even that did not bring
any relief.
"The bare minimum that one can
invest is Sh23 million (10,000) and there are people who have invested more
than Sh1 billion, I and my colleagues have tried to find a solution without
success because the director is currently not reachable his phone is not
available because he has fled to Dubai," claimed Kapongo.
Steven Ndaula (middle) and his
associates in their offices. PHOTO | COURTESY
BCM management admits delay
When reached for comment, The CEO of
the company, Steven Ndaula said that, he has been communicating with investors
on a regularly basis through letters and meetings since the company began to
suffer from recession.
Mr Ndaula’ s profile on his social
media pages describes him as a financial markets trader, blockchain -
cryptocurrency enthusiast, Real Estate investor and managing director at
Bestway Capital Management.
He, too, did not say the exact
amount of money that had been invested but admitted that the company is
struggling to see how it can pay its investors in three years’ time from now.
However, he said that the s payments
will come from the profit that will be generated while explaining that the
recession that emerged was due to the depreciation in the value of crypto
currencies, especially bitcoin, whose value dipped by 78 percent.
"We have seen the continued
appreciation of crypto currency in recent days, but we are sorry that there
will be no payment for the first quarter of the year but we are hopeful that in
second quarter of the year that we can honour the payments considering that we
have a project that we hope to launch in Dubai on the 3rd and 4th of May,"
said Ndaula.
When reached for comment the
Tanzania Police Force spokesperson David Misime, said he was in a meeting and
could not comment on the issue.
Company details
According to the information
available at the Business Registration and Licensing Agency (Brela) BCM was
incorporated on April 7, 2019 and is owned by 24 people, with three of them as
the majority shareholders.
Ndaula is the majority shareholder
of the company that had its offices at The Luminary Masaki building, in Dar es
Salaam, with a profile that includes trading in capital shares, online currency
exchange, bonds, shares and real estate with a vision of becoming the
investment company that is the people's choice.
Victims speak out
According to Kapongo after they
realized there was a communication breakdown with the directors, they reported
the matter to the Police, the Tanzanian embassy in the United Arab Emirates and
the Ministry of Home Affairs, the unit responsible for money laundering, but a
solution is yet to be found.
Joseph Missana invested Sh300
million, he hopes that with the intervention of government authorities, they
can retrieve the money that they invested in the hope of earning profits.
"I used my pension and invested
the first installment of 86 million, later I increased it to Sh300 million
using other sources, I got my dividends only six months ago, which was about
Sh30 million, after that things changed, the director has not shown up in the
office, the dividends are not available, all we have been receiving are letters
of notifying us that the money will be delayed," he said.
Just like many of the other 300 investors
Mr Missana was introduced to the company after he had retired and was looking
for where to invest his pension.
‘‘Most of us are retired from
active employment and we were looking for how to sustain ourselves and that is
how we ended up here,”
KKKT Reverend loses 200 million
In the list of the five directors
who manage various departments, there is a KKKT Kimara Korogwe’s Reverend
Joseph Maseghe, he appears on the company’s profile as the public relations
manager, a claim that he refutes.
He is alleged to have brought many
investors into the company, he, too, says that BCM is a fraudulent company that
has ran away with people's money.
"My name was used in the
company’s profile but I don’t have any title and I have never received any
payment for the position I am identified with. After they found out that I am a
pastor, they started using my name to advertise their business, they were using
religious leaders and politicians to advertise their business. Personally, I
have lost Sh200 million and I have not received anything," he said.
Reverend Maseghe said he is only an
investor and he sold the farm and used his other sources of income to get the
Sh200 million he invested but now he hears that the director of the company has
fled to the United Arab Emirates
However, information available at
Brela shows that Reverend Maseghe is among the owners of the company with 139,
something that he vehemently refuted saying they were made up.
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