By Nsan Ndoma-Neji, Calabar
The Federal Government yesterday warned prospective applicants seeking to benefit from the purported MSME Survival Fund to be weary of fraudulent websites floated by criminally-minded persons so that they won’t fall prey to scheme of fraudsters.
A release issued by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and signed by the Project Delivery Officer, PDO, Tola Johnson, warned Nigerians to be weary of scheme of fraudsters, so as not to fall prey to fraudsters’ trap.
It siad, “Portal requesting for beneficiaries’ accounts details to get N50,000 not known to us.
“The PDO is coordinated by Tola Johnson, the SA to the President on MSMEs, Office of the Vice President.
“Our attention has been drawn to the activities of fraudsters parading themselves as operators of the Federal Government’s Survival Fund Scheme.
“The syndicate operating a fraudulent portal with the link asking unsuspecting members of the public to check their eligibility for the scheme by providing their account details on the portal in order to be paid N50,000 grant under the Survival Fund Scheme.
“It is pertinent to note that the Project Delivery Office (the coordinating office of the scheme) does not operate any such portal and beneficiaries are not required to go to the website to verify their eligibility for the Federal Government’s Survival Fund as indicated on the fraudulent portal.
“The website requesting beneficiaries’ account details is therefore a scam. The PDO does not operate any such portal and wishes to advise all Nigerians and beneficiaries of the different tranches of the Survival Fund to be wary and desist from having dealings with the operators of the site.”
The release said that the authentic Survival Fund’s portal is www.survivalfund.gov.ng. and members of the public will be informed about updates on the scheme whenever it is necessary.
It is however petinent to note that the MSME Survival Fund is part of the N2.3 trillion stimulus package of the Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan and aims at boosting the capacity of MSMEs to remain in business.
