Let me tell you what happened to me this week. Because if it happened to me, it may have happened to you too.
On Sunday evening, I got an SMS from MoMoPSB:
“Relief! FGN has selected you to receive ₦50,000 under NERSI to help with living costs. This is FREE. Enq? Call 07000222222. Dial *671*0# to accept”
I looked at it and I laughed. Scam. Another one.
In Nigeria today, if you are not careful, you will lose your money before you even finish reading the SMS. So I ignored it.
On Tuesday, the second one came. Same sender. Same message. This time clearer:
“Relief! FGN selected you for FREE N50,000 under NERSI... To consent to open a MoMo account and receive the money, dial *671*0#”
I still thought it was a scam. But something kept telling me to check. There’s no harm in opening an account with MoMoPSB after all.
Just as a trial, I decided to dial the USSD code, since I read in the news that MoMoPSB is one of the fintech channels to be used.
I did not click any link. There was no link to click. I did not give any PIN, OTP or BVN to anybody. I just dialled *671*0# to see what would happen.
I told myself: if it asks for money, I will stop. If it asks for a PIN, I will stop. If it is a trap, I will know immediately.
It did not ask for any of those things. It only opened a MoMo account and asked for my consent, and allowed me to create a PIN. I downloaded the app later.
That was the trial. And that trial is what brought the ₦50,000.
Then yesterday, the third one came:
“FREE N50,000 FGN NERSI Relief is waiting for you! Create your MoMo account to receive it. Dial *671# or download the MoMo PSB NG app!”
Three messages. Same story. At that point, my curiosity — that same curiosity that took me from skipping Business News to investing in the stock market — started to worry me.
What if this one is real?
So I did what I always tell people to do: I checked before I clicked. I did not click any link. There was no link. I did not give any PIN, OTP or BVN to anybody. I only dialled the USSD code that was in the message — *671*0# — to open a MoMo account and give my consent.
And then yesterday, 5th November 2026 at 3:14 pm, this came:
“MoMo Credit Alert
FROM: FG Relief NERSI
AMT: N50,000.00
BAL: N50,000.00
REMARK: GOVT_DISBURSEMENT”
₦50,000. Real money. In my account. Confirmed!
Now I have questions. And I know you will have the same questions.
How did my number get into the list of poor and vulnerable households?
I am definitely not rich. By Nigerian standards, I can say I might belong to the middle-income class, definitely not anywhere near the top, somewhere around the bottom of the lower-middle-income earners. But poor and vulnerable? I am not sure I qualify for that list.
The last time I received FGN ‘largesse’ was around 2003 — 23 years ago — when I received a one-off 50k FGN Scholarship in my final year, 500 level, undergraduate. I was in the 2nd batch. The scholarship was introduced around 2001. I don't even know if that scholarship still exists today or students loan via NELFUND has replaced it.
So how did my name enter this list? Could there be a mistake somewhere?
I learnt that this is NERSI — National Emergency Relief and Stabilisation Intervention — run by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction. According to the government, beneficiaries are selected from the National Social Register and verified national identity records. You cannot apply. You cannot pay to enter. You are selected in batches through five approved providers: ALAT by Wema, MoMo PSB, NairaGram, OPay and Moniepoint.
Is this one for all Nigerians? Did you receive a similar SMS?
Please tell me in the comments. Did you get the MoMoPSB message? Or ALAT? Or OPay? Or Moniepoint? Or did you dial the code and it said "NOT SELECTED"?
I want to know if I am alone in this confusion, or if many middle-class Nigerians like me are also getting it.
Anyway, I am not returning the money. Neither am I spending it. It is a grant, not a loan. The government itself says you do not need to repay it. But please, be careful. Because scammers are at work again.
The real NERSI message will *never* send you a phishing link to click. It will never ask you for your PIN, OTP or BVN. It will never ask you to pay money to release the money. It will only come from one of the five approved providers, and it will only ask you to dial their official USSD code.
If anybody sends you a link and says "click here to claim your ₦50,000", delete it. That one is a scam.
My own three messages came from MoMoPSB, no link, no fee, and the helpline given was 07000222222 — which is the official NERSI helpline. That is how I knew to take the risk to dial the code.
I thought it was a scam. It turned out to be real.
Life has taught me one thing again: Do not dismiss everything because many things are fake. Check. Verify. Ask questions. Then decide.
Curiosity saved me from missing this ₦50,000. Ignorance would have made me delete all three messages.
Have you checked yours?
