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Claim: A Facebook page shared a link claiming that the Federal government is giving out N500,000 grants to youths, and the offer will expire at the end of February 2024.
Verdict: FALSE. The Federal government did not announce such an offer. Also, the link attached did not portray a state-owned website and displayed a United States visa sponsorship opportunity.
Full Text
The Bola Tinubu-led administration has introduced different policies and projects to ease Nigeria’s economic dilemma since its inauguration on May 29, 2023.
Since the fuel subsidy removal announcement, some of the palliatives promised include N1 trillion investment under the Student Loan initiative; N35,000 provisional wage increment for all treasury-paid workers; N25,000 to 15 million households for three months, N125 billion conditional grants; and financial inclusion to Medium and Small-Scales Enterprises (MSMEs) among others.
A Facebook page, Solid Travels, shared a post claiming the existence of a Federal Government grant of N500,000 for Nigerian youths. More than 3,700 accounts have reacted to the post, while it has garnered over 2,600 comments and 67 reshares since it was shared on Feb. 2, 2024.
The link attached did not depict a state-owned initiative, but most comments indicated people expressing their interests. This raised suspicions and prompted DUBAWA to verify the information.
Verification
We clicked on the link and found no content that showed registration or eligibility for a Federal government grant. Instead, the website -Petsmartgo.com- showed how Nigerians can obtain a visa sponsorship opportunity in the United States (USA).
We also looked through the Central Bank of Nigeria’s website and social media platform but found no indication of such grants for Nigerian youths.
Using Scamadviser, we could not find the owner of the website. Though the website has a good rating of 86/100, it does not have many visitors. Lastly, it indicated that several spammers and scammers use the same registrar.
Conclusion
The link attached to the post did not depict a state-owned initiative. Also, spammers and scammers use the website’s information to carry out mischievous deeds. Therefore, users should beware of the hoax website.
