Screenshots circulating on Twitter and Facebook say the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control spent N1 billion (US$2.7 million) on sending text messages to educate Nigerians about COVID-19.
Posts circulating on social media claim the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control spent N1 billion (US$2.7 million) on sending SMSs to educate Nigerians about Covid-19., Tweets from 8 April 2020 shared what appeared to be a screenshot of news article headlines claiming the agency said they had spent N1 billion on a Covid-19 awareness campaign., Similar messages were shared on Facebook., Did the NCDC really spend this much money?, The NCDC told Africa Check that the claim was false., On 9 April, the agency also dismissed the claim in a tweet. “The headline claiming that NCDC has spent N1 billion on SMS to Nigerians is FALSE. While communication through SMS is a key part of our #COVID19 response strategy, this has been largely provided as in-kind support by @AirtelNigeria @MTNNG @GloWorld,” they said., NCDC director-general, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, urged Nigerians to do all they could to support the agency and the country’s healthcare workers., He said: “Avoid spreading fake and unverified news on the pandemic, stay safe, keep washing your hands , maintain a safe social distance and hygiene. In the end we will overcome it.” – Motunrayo Joel, , "A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”. What should you do? First, dont delete!", Click on our guide for the steps you should follow., Publishers guide, Africa Check is a partner in Facebook’s third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media., The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it., You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how., Africa Check is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers fighting misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic., Learn more about the alliance here., , © Copyright Africa Check 2020. Read our republishing guidelines.\xa0You may reproduce this piece or content from it for the purpose of reporting and/or discussing news and current events. This is subject to: Crediting Africa Check in the byline, keeping all hyperlinks to the sources used and adding this sentence at the end of your publication: “This report was written by Africa Check, a non-partisan fact-checking organisation. View the original piece on their website", with a link back to this page., We depend on voluntary donations to run this site. Please help us to keep public figures accountable by supporting the project., Find out more, For democracy to function, public figures need to be held to account for what they say. The claims they make need to be checked, openly and impartially. Africa Check is an independent, non-partisan organisation which assesses claims made in the public arena using journalistic skills and evidence drawn from the latest online tools, readers, public sources and experts, sorting fact from fiction and publishing the results., , Get a weekly dose of facts, straight to your inbox.
No, Nigeria’s disease control authority didn’t spend N1 billion on Covid-19 SMS campaign | Africa Check