Prime
BLQ con shows govt must do much better
An illustration explaining how BLQ Football Club’s “investors” make money. PHOTO/COURTESY
What you need to know:
The issue: Ponzi scheme
Our view: The government has to burn the midnight oil to ensure that it bridges the yawning chasm between consumer protection laws and their practical application.
As Uganda’s economic warning lights continue to flash red and the Bank of Uganda proceeds with its “shock therapy” of a tight monetary policy, Ugandans are increasingly falling through the cracks. As a classic coping mechanism, many have sought refuge in get-rich-quick schemes.
This has not been without consequences as this newspaper reported on Saturday after a Ponzi scheme backfired horribly for thousands—possibly tens of thousands—of Ugandans.
It’s reasonable to assume that people might have had little incentive to pursue the folly of the pyramid selling scheme that is BLQ FOOTBALL CLUB were they not desperate.
While the current financial maelstrom has made the work of fraudsters that much easier, it shouldn’t be lost upon us that the state’s reluctance to tackle fraud has exacerbated things.
Fraudsters like those behind the BLQ scam have been emboldened by the loss of law enforcement. Evidently, there is a dearth of political will to create and operationalise consumer protection laws. Such is the abject state of consumer affairs that the system in place is unaccountable to complainants.
Complainants have no means of discovering whether their cases are being investigated. Take the BLQ scam victims, many—if not all—told this newspaper that they ran into a wall of unaccountable, opaque bureaucracy when they tried to report the theft of their money. This is unfortunate.
The government has put in place laws and institutions that interest themselves in consumer affairs. On the one hand, some of the laws include the Uganda National Bureau Standard Act Cap 32, the Weight and Measures Act Cap 103, the National Drugs Authority Act Cap 206, the Foods and Drugs Act Cap 278, the Contract Act, etc.
On the other hand, the institutions include the Uganda National Bureau of Standards, the National Drugs Authority, the Uganda Consumer Protection Association, the Uganda Communication Commission, etc.
While rifling through the laws and institutions is reassuring, there is well-founded unease about their toothlessness. Vulnerable persons continue to be the targets of shameless scammers like those behind BLQ. Such is the temerity of the people behind the BLQ scam that they have promised to return to Uganda in another twisted manner and shape.
The flawed interpretation of compound interest that saw them fleece many BLQ users of billions of shillings won’t be the last we hear of them.
This is sad, mad, and bad. As mentioned before, the absence of an efficient mechanism for enforcement of consumer rights is what sparks the notoriety of fraudsters such as those behind the BLQ con.
The government has to burn the midnight oil to ensure that it bridges the yawning chasm between consumer protection laws and their practical application.
The piecemeal sectoral regulations and guidelines are threading through with unintended sinister repercussions. The government should work unstintingly to reverse this by—for starters—having an omnibus consumer protection law in place. This can go a long way in offering some kind of semblance of direction.
Currently, the experiments being undertaken are no more than shots in the dark. We strongly believe that a course correction is long overdue.
