Claim: Youth Enterprise Support Initiative 2021, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, is reported to be awarding Ghanaian applicants, GH₵30,000 per week under the YES fund.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied it and described this viral message as fake.
Full story
Between Thursday and Friday, many WhatsApp users received a message which was purportedly issued by the Youth Enterprise Support under the name of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. In the message was a link that asked all interested Ghanaians to apply and choose their preferred mode of payment, adding that their accounts would be credited “as soon as as possible.”
The application form was available on ghanafunds.applyfast.online and requested applicant’s first name, last name, phone number and email address.
According to the website,
“All Ghanaians are entitled to GH₵30,000 per week for the youth enterprise support fund. Proceed now to apply by filling the provided form and choose your preferred payment method. Your account will be credited as soon as possible.”
Beneath the form was another false claim that Youth Enterprise Support was initiated by President Nana Akufo-Addo. The site could not tell the exact figure of Ghanaians who have benefited from the Initiative. The lack of such critical information raised suspicion over the content on the site.
Verification
The supposed disbursement of GH₵30,000 (an unusually generous offer from government) per week to each Ghanaian that completes the application stimulated Dubawa’s curiosity.
Dubawa checked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration’s website –where no such announcement was found. A similar search was done on the Ministry’s Facebook and Twitter pages where, again, no content like that was found.
A telephone conversation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that,
“Since it is not advertised on any of our pages and website, it is not true; disregard it,” an official of the Ministry warned.
The official further warned that Ghanaians should disregard it.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, in a release dated May 17, 2021 said “the Government of Ghana has neither established a support initiative that goes by the name ‘Youth Enterprise Support Initiative 2021’ nor has the President of the Republic, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo initiated any programme that provides the above mentioned financial support.”
“The Ministry wishes to advise the general public to disregard the ‘Youth Enterprise Support Initiative 2021’ and the claims being made about its purported services since it is fraudulent,” the release added.
Furthermore, the Facebook page for the Youth Enterprise Support, which is associated with the claim being made, did not have the same announcement purported to have come from it. The last post on that page, as at the time the search was conducted, dated back to August 11, 2015.
Conclusion
It is not true that the Youth Enterprise Support, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, is set to award GH₵30,000 to Ghanaian applicants per week.
This report was produced under the Dubawa Student Fact-checking Project aimed at offering students in tertiary schools aspiring to take up roles in the profession the opportunity to acquire real-world experience through verification and fact-checking.