It works, I’m telling you. This plan pays 120k per month…
My ears stood erect.
I was in my room before my PC, typing out a blog post when I heard that. I jumped off the computer and walked towards the source of the claim. Fortunately, I found them still discussing.
“Hi bro,” I greeted them in the typical Nigerian fashion as I walked up to them. “I heard you said something pays 120k. Can you tell me more about that, please?”
That question made me hear something entirely new to me. Hearing it for the first time, it looks entirely bogus and stupid.
After thinking and re-reviewing it, however…
Hmmm.
Here’s all I think about the whole Inksnation project.
[lwptoc]
What is Inksnation
Inksnation claims it’s a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO).
Isn’t that an impressive introduction for someone trying to reach a Nigerian audience, where semi-literacy is massive?
I’ll be honest with you, 90% of Nigerians have no idea what Decentralized or Autonomous is, but I’ll try to explain it here.
Decentralized is much harder to explain, but simply it means there is no centralized leadership.
Remember the #ENDSARS protests? That’s a great example of a decentralized protest. In a decentralized system, power is shared amongst multiple leaders or even everyone in the system.
Autonomous is even more dangerous. It means Inksnation works on its own free will and is not a respecter of any executive or judicial legislation.
For someone I’ll trust with my money, being autonomous isn’t fair enough.
The autonomy of Inksnation has been proved (although we’ll get to that), but the decentralization is something that feels like a cheap lie.
What’s the compensation plan?
Inksnation is one of the most dubious income programs I’ve ever come across when I reviewed compensation plans.
Before breaking it down, let me start by saying the Inksnation project claimed it can eradicate poverty in any country in less than nine months.
Wait, that wasn’t a typo; I really mean months —not centuries, decades, or even years!
So you’re trying to tell me that this guy is smarter than all past and present presidents of every country in the world?
Technically, that’s the case because poverty has been one of the world’s biggest challenges since inception. For someone to eradicate it in nine months means he has a better solution than any president ever had.
Let’s see what the idea is.
Registration
To become a part of Inksnation, you’ll have to pay a meager amount of NGN1000, which amounts to about $3. While this is the standard fee, some agents around the country do slap commissions onto the amount. However, you shouldn’t be paying anything above NGN2000.
Compensation
You instantly get an NGN5,580 bonus for signing up. You also get a daily bonus that’s twice your signup fee. That’s practically NGN2000 daily for life.
It doesn’t stop there, however, as you might have guessed; every Inksnation member is also entitled to a monthly salary of NGN120,000.
Seriously, this is a handsome joke. I’m still thinking of any three-dollar investment that’ll make you $500 in just thirty days {please share if you know).
Let’s be serious for once; Inksnation claims it’ll pay close to NGN250,000 monthly to all users who paid a signup fee of NGN1,000, doing nothing.
This is grossly unrealistic and unconvincing. Amos Sewanu is obviously inexperienced, a new entrant into the scamming world.
However, something shocked me about the Inksnation project: “more than 200,000 Nigerians signed up for Inksnation!”
That’s even funnier than Inksnation’s compensation plan, but it’s explainable. In the next section, I’ll explain why I think many Nigerians rushed to Inksnation, despite having an absurdly stupid structure.
Why Nigerians Flocked Inksnation
1. The poverty rate is overwhelming in Nigeria
Picture this: There are about 200,000,000 people in Nigeria, while India has more than 1 billion. But there are more poor persons in Nigeria than in India. In fact, there are more poor people in Nigeria than in any other country in the world.”
That heartbreaking stat shows the simple reason why Inksnation was a success in Nigeria.
And have you heard about the rate at which scams occur in Nigeria? (don’t say Nigerian Prince please!)
2. Nigerians love gambles
The only thing Amos Sewanu did right was that he recognized Nigerian’s major flaw — money now!
Nigerians love to make money, and they don’t mind losing some money in the process.
The second most visited website in Nigeria is Bet9ja. Know what they do there?
THEY F*CKING BET ON SPORTS GAMES!
Every day, people predict outcomes of football matches with a stake anywhere from half a dollar up to $10.
If and when they win, they get compensated with a much larger amount of money.
If someone can bet NGN1,000 daily on football games, how hard is it to bet it on Inksnation — for once?
After all, the compensation is strikingly similar!
3. Nigerians are highly net-illiterate
Given that Nigeria has one of the slowest internet speeds in the world, this isn’t a lot surprising.
“Most Nigerians can’t Google.
When I was introduced to Inksnation, the first thing I did was to run a quick Google search for the term “Inksnation.”
The results weren’t what I expected. I took a screenshot of the search results that very day and posted it on my Facebook and WhatsApp status to save some of my friends from losing their money, but…
I guess it didn’t work as well as I wanted.
The above two screenshots were taken the same day I was introduced to Inksnation, and they were both on the first page of Google for the term “Inksnation.”
I mean, if it’s this easy to spot that Inksnation was a hoax, then why do people fall for it?
I guess the Nigerian government needs to teach many Nigerians how to use Google.
4. Low cost of entry
I lost NGN13,000 ($40) to a scam many months ago, and I guess that scam only reached a limited amount of people.
The reason isn’t that difficult to understand: “NGN13,000 isn’t easy to come by in Nigeria!”
The average monthly income of a gatekeeper in Nigeria is less than that.
The legal minimum wage in Nigeria is NGN30,000 ($90), but many Nigerians make a lot less than that.
Amos Sewanu targeted Nigerians excellently.
Most people earning above the minimum wage are educated, and they can tell a scam at first glance. Others, like the gatekeepers, don’t know how to research and tell if a program is a scam or not.
But it will be very difficult to convince someone earning $40 a month to register for an income program with $30.
To effectively reach those that his idea will appeal to, Sewanu targeted the low-income workers by making it very cheap to sign up.
The result? 200,000 registered members!
I expected more.
5. Inefficient regulatory agencies
Nigeria has EFCC for economic crimes, but how well has it been faring?
The SIBAN and the Nigerian Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has marked Inksnation illegal many months ago, but what has the government done to prevent more people from signing up?
Nothing.
People still register for Inksnation in their thousands, and they still have an online portal up and running.
However, the Nigerian government will receive a lot of backlashes decided to bring down the website before the Inksnation payout date.
So, I would do the same if I were in charge.
The outcome of Inksnation
The Inksnation founder is known popularly amongst the members as the Universal Daddy Ink (UDI for short). He is heralded even more than the Nigerian president amongst members.
That made me frown upon its decentralized claim. If the scheme was to be truly decentralized, I don’t see any reason why you should place yourself at the helm of affairs, with everyone looking like your subordinate.
That’s even an insignificant story now because the guy is spending most of his time hiding from the Nigerian government, as he has been officially declared wanted.
He has failed to show up, however, and I understand this. After all, he has already introduced his organization as “autonomous,” so WTF is the government’s concern?
Conclusion
We’ve seen many scams in Nigeria, with many different structures, but never have I seen one as bold and unrealistic as Inksnation.
Despite being unrealistic and absurdly complicated, some factors such as the low-income majority of Nigerians and Nigerians love for online gambling made it a success.
All in all, the advice remains the same: “only invest what you can afford to lose!”
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