The humanitarian trust fund portal that is being circulated in Nigeria currently is fake, the Federal Government announced on Tuesday.
It also announced that the Canadian government has expressed readiness to support the humanitarian and poverty alleviation response in Nigeria with a commitment of $18m.
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, in a statement issued in Abuja, informed the general public that a circulating portal tagged ‘FG Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation Trust Fund Portal,’ was fake.
She said the portal did not emanate from her ministry, stressing that it was created by undesirable elements with the sole intention of defrauding unsuspecting members of the public.
Edu said there would never be a portal from either her ministry or any other ministry, department or agency of government or its partners that would request the public to apply for, or access funds from the humanitarian and poverty alleviation trust fund.
“The general public is therefore advised to discountenance the circulating link to the alleged portal as it is a creation of fraudsters,” the minister stated.
In another development, the humanitarian ministry said the Canadian government had expressed readiness to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda in poverty alleviation.
It said in a statement that the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Jamie Christoff, made this known when he led his team to visit Edu at her office in Abuja.
Christoff said the Canadian government had committed to put in $152m as part of their assistance to Nigeria for various programmes, while $18m was earmarked for humanitarian response.
He was quoted as saying, “I am here with my team to register our support to the mandate of the President in his efforts to alleviate poverty and reduce humanitarian crises in Nigeria through your ministry.”
Responding, Edu informed the commissioner of the determination of the Federal Government to significantly tackle multi-dimensional poverty and humanitarian crises in Nigeria by 2030 in line with the SDG target.