Screenshot of the claim as seen on WhatsApp
A post which was sighted on WahtsApp claims that the Federal Government of Nigeria plans to give 705,000 students its 2024 bursary amounting to ₦75,000.
The post further claimed that 458,098 students benefited from the same programme in 2022 and each got ₦50,800. The post included a link https://tlyurl.com/STUDENT-BURSARY-PROGRAM for interested persons to apply. The post containing the claim was shared on May 26, 2024.
Other sources claimed that the Federal Ministry of Education was offering the 2024 Federal Government Bursary Award for qualified Nigerian students of tertiary institutions, and that this will be dispensed under the Federal Scholarship Board Bursary Award.
The amount promised is a cash award of ₦150,000.00 to all selected applicants who would be registered students of either universities or Nigerian colleges of education.
This announcement also has a link which indicates that there is no on-going scholarship application at the moment. It has since expired on May 13, 2024.
Findings revealed that the Federal Government of Nigeria indeed announced scholarship awards for tertiary students in the country.
And the announcement was made on April 2, 2024, in a statement signed by the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education.
This Federal Government scholarship is the 2023/2024 Nigerian Scholarship Award (NSA) and Education Bursary Award (EBA) tenable in Nigerian Public Tertiary Institutions.
But the statement did not include students in primary schools or those between 12 and 45 years of age. This application opened on April 2, 2024 and it has since closed on 13th May, 2024.
In 2022, the Federal Government awarded ₦75,000 bursary to students undergoing degree programmes in Education in public universities per semester, while those undergoing the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) were awarded ₦50,000 per semester.
The applications were done through an online portal, www.education.gov.ng, the same for the 2021 bursary award.
While the claim in the post stated that 458,098 students benefited from the 2022 awards, the Federal Government stated recently that only a total of 2,889 students studying education-related courses in Nigerian higher institutions have benefited from the ₦75,000 bursary awards, as contained in the data given by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, during the first quarterly meeting of the Federal Ministry of Education.
In other words, the government gave ₦75,000 bursary awards to students of tertiary institutions.
But they were only 2,889 beneficiaries.
A check on the link attached to the WhatsApp post shared on May 26, ten days after the government deadline of May 13, 2024, shows that it is not a government website or portal.
A check on the portal using Whois.com did not provide registration data and indicates that the site is inactive.
Screenshots of the website
An official of the Federal Ministry of Education headquarters, identified as Danjuma Ali, who spoke with our correspondent stated that the government official portal for the application is closed and will only be opened again in November of 2024.
Conclusion
A close look at the portal shows that it is a possible phishing platform, as it is neither properly registered nor an official government portal managed by the scholarship board of the government or the Federal Ministry of Education.
It is therefore a scheme to scam members of the public.
