Money schemes

Beware of con men scheming for your money. PHOTO BY EDGAR R BATTE

About eight years ago, a friend of mine pushed me hard to meet a guy called Majwala running a seemingly money making scheme. Out of courtesy I set up an appointment and we met at our offices at Susie house then.

Majwala is or was a smart young man who seemed to know so much about how money is made without hard work.

He had a lot testimonies of successful investors in his scheme. Deep in me I knew how life works because I had run Great Lakes Safaris for about eight years and I knew there was no an easy way of making money. Money is a medium of exchange of value for value.
In a way I did not want to disappoint my friend who had recommended meeting Majwala and in wanting to please him, I invested $11,000 (Shs40m) after a verbal guarantee of my investment by this friend of mine.
I could have invested more but I knew this does not work. I was promised $3000 (Shs10m) per week after hard trading by his team.

After handing him Shs40m that day I knew I had made a mistake. Why did I agree to pressure? I asked myself. My fears were right.

Thankfully, I did not invest too much of the company’s money then and that used to happen that I had idle money. I’m now looking for more money for more bags of cement so no idle money.

Anyhow, a week passed, a month passed and yes more months passed and thankfully, one day I found Majwala chap having fun at Simba Safari Camp ltd in Queen Elizabeth National Park with a number of young ladies.

I called him on the side and I squeezed $4,000 from him and that was the end. Never saw the $7,000 again till today.
Guys, many people are suffering today in Kampala and Uganda in general because many people believe money can be made without hard work including Christians such as myself.

Marriages collapsing because family money was invested in these silly or stupid Ponzi schemes. Normally people close will convince us about these schemes and by the way, out of ignorance on their side.

I am sharing this experience for young people to see that you have got to work hard. I have not had for example a day of rest in the 32 days and yes, I will take off a day and just sleep.

There is nothing called free or easy money in life. I have been blessed to travel across the world and everywhere I go, people work hard. The more developed the country, the more hard work one sees. People have up to three jobs just to make ends meet. Anyone who becomes rich without exchanging value (work) with value (money) or earning without solving a problem is actually a thief.

Our country is in big financial trouble because lots of people think there are easy ways of making money including our leaders.

Uganda is not doing well. Our national debt is Shs37 trillion. Our budget 2017/2018 is Shs29 trillion and we are expecting to raise only Shs15 trillion through taxes and borrow more Shs14 trillion of which Shs10 trillion will go towards servicing our loans.

The writer is an investment expert
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