The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Monday urged loan seekers and owners of small-scale businesses to disregard fraudulent messages in the social media requesting them to apply for Federal Government loans through an e-mail address purportedly being managed by the apex bank.
A statement by Isaac Okorafor, director, corporate commissions at the CBN, gave the fraudulent email address as empowermentcbnloan@gmail.com, said there are several development finance intervention programmes from which different categories of businesses have benefitted (and still benefit).
It advised 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.
None of such programmes, the statement quoted Okorafor as stressing, involves the CBN undertaking direct interaction with prospective applicants, stressing that there are clearly spelt out procedures for accessing any of its intervention funds.
For the avoidance of doubt, the statement said the intervention funds and disbursed through Participating Financial Institutions (PFIs), such as Deposit Money Banks (DMBs), Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) and Microfinance Banks (MFBs).
“These messages are fake and anyone who enters into correspondence with them does so at his or her own risk,” the CBN stressed, urging prospective applicants to approach their respective banks or the CBN branch nearest to them for clarification on the procedure for accessing any of the CBN-related loans.