No, Nigerian government is not giving a N50,000 child support grant to every parent
IN SHORT: Several Facebook posts claim that the Nigerian government is giving all parents a child support grant of N50,000 following complaints about the high cost of food. But the same message circulated in South Africa and Kenya in January 2024; it was a scam then and it's a scam now.
According to a poorly written post on Facebook, parents in Nigeria are eligible for a N50,000 child support grant from the federal government for six months.
The 20 April 2024 post reads, in part: "Due to high level of complains from Nigerian parents on the high cost of feeding their children, *President Bola Ahmed Tinubu* have urge that the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation *Betta C. Edu* should open the CHILD SUPPORT scheme. Every Nigerian parents is entitled to receive the sum of ₦50,000 for 6 months."
The post features a photo of Nigerian president Bola Tinubu and a link where parents can supposedly apply.
Other posts making the same claim can be found on Facebook here and here.
But is the Nigerian government giving parents N50,000 to feed their children? We checked.
'Beware of fake news'
Clicking on the link in the post takes users to a suspicious-looking website that asks for personal information, such as name, phone number and email address.
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We entered made-up details and were taken to the next step, where we had to enter the name of our bank and our account number.
There was a catch at the end, as we were asked to share the link with five groups or 15 friends on WhatsApp in order to receive the money.
This is a tactic known as engagement bait - posts that ask people to interact by liking, commenting or sharing. The more people do this, the greater the reach of the Facebook post and the link.
Dada Olusegun, the special assistant to the president, said the claim that the Nigerian government was giving N50,000 to each parent to support their children was false.
"Beware of fake news!" he wrote on X (formerly Twitter) and attached a screenshot of a WhatsApp message making the claim.
Nigerian newspapers Legit and the Guardian have also reported that the claim was fake news.
Similar scam in South Africa and Kenya
In January, similar messages with links to dodgy websites also circulated in South Africa and Kenya.
They claimed that the Kenyan government was giving every parent KSh10,000 to feed their children, while the South African government was giving them R1,100 for six months.
But both claims were also false and users should be wary of scammers.
To protect yourself from online fraud, read our guide to Facebook scams and how to spot them.
