Claim: A blog post is inviting young Nigerians to apply for a federal government’s offer of N75,000 stipend.
In commemoration of the 2021 World Teachers’ Day, the federal government has been reported to have promised to pay N75,000 and N50,000 for tertiary students studying education courses. However, no application method or means to access the funds is announced by the government. As such, this acclaimed headline is misleading.
Full Text
In a news article published by “Recruitment Trust” on October 8, 2021, an offer of an acclaimed N75,000 federal government stipend was made open to young Nigerians to apply for.
The news article, headlined that “Federal Government Approves ₦75,000 Stipends for Young Nigerians–Apply Now!” and that the offer was only for undergraduate students (N75,000) and NCE students (50,000).
“As Nigeria Teachers celebrate world teacher’s day today, the Federal Government approves N75,000 stipend payment for undergraduate students and N50,000 for NCE students.
Recruitment Trust is an organization that announces job openings for job seekers through its website. The platform has existed since 2019 and has had many visitors using the website to find jobs. While this site may be legit, the offer of stipends by the federal government has not appeared on other job platforms or even on other news websites. This offer is reminiscent of other false job claims, thus interesting DUBAWA to verify the claim.
Verification
After reading the content of the post, DUBAWA observed that the news article had different information from its headline. Aside from that, it also failed to provide the acclaimed application link to the said offer. Although the headline stated “apply now,” there was no direction or hyperlink to take users to the offer.
Even though the content referenced the offer to a promise made by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, that students undergoing degree programmes in education would receive N75,000 stipends every semester, the programme is yet to be activated by the federal government.
The Nation, Nigerian Tribune, and Punch newspapers reported a similar story back in 2021, when Malam Adamu promised to pay stipends for students studying education courses in a speech delivered on his behalf to commemorate the 2021 World Teachers’ Day. However, the federal government never actually disclosed how and when the promise would be implemented, talk less of an “apply now” process as alleged by the blog post.
In addition, DUBAWA conducted another Google keyword search to see if there were other announcements on how to apply for these stipends. Results revealed no further instructions on how to apply, and there was no credible source that even announced the implementation of the programme.
Conclusion
Truly, in October 2021, the Federal Government of Nigeria promised N75,000 and N50,000 to students undergoing education programmes. However, it did not provide an application method, and since then the programme is yet to be implemented. The headline is apparently a typical blog post that is forged to attract traffic. As such, this claim is misleading.
