The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has raised the alarm over fraudulent messages being circulated in the social media, requesting unsuspecting loan seekers and owners of small-scale businesses to apply for loans provided by the Federal Government through an e-mail address, purportedly being handled by the apex bank.
In a statement issued Monday, Isaac Okorafor, Director, Corporate Communications at the CBN, said “while the bank, indeed, has several development finance intervention programmes from which different categories of businesses have benefitted (and still benefit), the bank does not do so through direct interaction with prospective applicants.”
Okorafor explained that there are clearly spelt out procedures for accessing CBN intervention funds, which are disbursed through Participating Financial Institutions, PFIs, such as Deposit Money Banks, DMBs, Development Finance Institutions, DFIs, and Microfinance Banks, MFBs.
The Central Bank, therefore, advised members of the public, particularly youth and owners of small-scale businesses to disregard any message requesting them to send their personal details, including mobile phone numbers, to emails such as empowermentcbnloan@gmail.com or any other one that may be contrived.
“These messages are fake and anyone who enters into correspondence with them does so at his or her own risk. Prospective applicants are advised to approach their respective banks or the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, branch nearest to them for clarification on the procedure for accessing any of the CBN-related loans,” the statement read.
