THE Central Bank of Nigeria on Monday has denounced knowledge of calls for loan applications to small and medium- scale business being circulated on social media, says it is fraudulent.

Issac Okorafor, Director, Corporate and Communication Officer of the apex bank in a press release said although the bank has several development finance intervention programmes, that the central bank ‘does not’ carry out such transaction through direct interaction with the applicants.

He advised prospective applicants to follow proper procedures for accessing CBN intervention funds often disbursed through Deposit Money Banks, Development Finance Institutions, Microfinance Banks and participating institutions.

“The attention of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has been drawn to fraudulent messages in the social media circles requesting unsuspecting loan seekers and owners of small-scale businesses to apply for loans provided by the Federal Government through an e-mail address ([email protected]) purportedly being handled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)”.

The apex bank also warned the social media users to disregard messages requesting them to send personal details—phone numbers, email passwords-to [email protected] 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.”