A post recently surfaced on WhatsApp inviting Nigerian youths to apply for a National Youth Empowerment Fund. The content of the shared content on social media indicated that its vision “is to give out ₦150,000 – ₦550,000 grant (sic) to every citizen who needs (sic) a helping hand”.
Also, it included an online portal for applicants. Haltfake saw that this content has been variously shared in groups on WhatsApp.
Verification
The post claimed that the fund was for 2024-2026, and stated that the fund was available for citizens “under the age of 13-65 years” immediately drew our attention to the likelihood that it might be a trap.
In the first instance, Nigeria does not recognise people above 35 years as youth. The Nigeria National Youth Policy (2019-2023) defines youth as persons of age 18 to 35 years. Also, the Policy (Pp23-25) states that 15 years is the lower age group for defining youth in Nigeria.
Furthermore, a keyword search was conducted.
We discovered that the Federal Government of Nigeria has a number of schemes designed for young people, businesses, tech start-ups, and so on. Some of them include the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises Program (iDICE), a $617.7 million package for “Nigerians aged 15 to 35 years who are involved in innovative, early-stage, technology-enabled start-ups or in creative sector micro, small and medium sized enterprises” and it is co-financed by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Bank of Industry, African Development Bank (AfDB), the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB).
Screenshot of the post as seen on WhatsApp
There is also the Skill-Up Artisans (SUPA), designed to up-skill, license, and empower 10 million artisans in Nigeria, and the Nigerian Youth Academy (NiYA) which promises a number of skills and opportunities for young people in Nigeria, but without cash of between ₦150,000 and ₦550,000.
The other scheme is the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) which targets Nigerians between 18 and 40 years who are in Start-Ups and Early to Growth Stage businesses (3 million – 20 million), Growth Stage Businesses and Others (15 million – 50 million), and High Growth Businesses (10 million – 100 million). This programme does not make any offer within the range promised by the post under review.
The portal on the post was explored.
On typing the link into a browser, the first message sighted reads: “FG: Congratulations, you are among the selected ones to receive the Youth Empowerment Funds, kindly press 1 to submit your information now.”
Screenshot of the portal
After clicking OK, the portal does not lead to any application for Federal Government funds, but redirects to a page which is a decoy to harvest the data of unsuspecting young people. The website then promises to link them with others looking for love and asks them to subscribe for a daily, weekly or monthly package.
Screenshot of the portal
Conclusion
First, if the website says a person is selected as one of the persons to receive the Youth Empowerment Funds, this means the person must have submitted information earlier, where the request for selection was made. But that is not the case. This sounds suspiciously unusual.
Also, an analysis of the portal included in the post making its rounds on WhatsApp shows that it is a phishing site under the decoy of government empowerment.
It is therefore a scheme to scam young people of their personal data and rip them off their hard-earned money.
