A piece of information doing the rounds in the cyber space is that the Nigerian government, through AssistNigeria, is ‘helping businesses and students affected by the COVID-19 pandemic’.
The purported Relief Fund was linked to the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development of Nigeria.
According to an information on https://assistnigeria.org/, “the establishment of the Small Business and Student Relief Fund is in addition to other steps AssistNigeria alongside the Government is taking in consultation with—and at the direction of the Federation to help businesses and students affected by the global pandemic.”
It adds: “Businesses and Schooling Institution are following public health orders, and we recognize this has an impact.
![[FILE] A health worker administers dose of a Covid-19 vaccine to a person in Bimbo, near Bangui, on November 15, 2021. For the health authorities in the Central African Republic, the second least developed in the world according to the UN and in civil war since 2013, the challenge is as much to obtain the vaccine as to convince people of its necessity, as elsewhere on the continent.. (Photo by Barbara DEBOUT / AFP)](https://www.afriupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/vaccination-1062x598-1.jpg "December 1 deadline: Get vaccinated if you love your job, FG tells workers 5")
“This relief effort is about restoring some balance to the current situation, Schools and businesses are making a necessary sacrifice while bearing a tremendous burden as they comply with these orders.
“We’re taking aggressive action today to help students and businesses stay afloat.”
Afriupdate News learnt that many Nigerians have input their details on the website. But how genuine is this information?
On Saturday, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, via its verified Twitter handle, asked the public to disregard the information, describing it as “fake news”.
Please disregard #FakeNews. pic.twitter.com/LkDyXhwoRf
— Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs (@fmha_pa) January 9, 2021
Fake news has become increasingly prevalent over the last few years.
Since they typically hope to intentionally promote incorrect information, such information are quite difficult to detect.
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