By Citizen Agba Jalingo
The Cross River State Youth Empowerment Scheme is a program funded with Cross River State money. It is meant to provide empowerment for young people in the State, devoid of the encumbrances that private and corporate business owners often lay out to militate the ambitions of young people.
A statement from the Chairman of the scheme Kalita Joe Aruku (posted along with this article), asked young people in our State who have genuine businesses that need scaling up to apply for a loan of up to 5 million Naira and interested applicants were asked to appear at designated venues in Calabar, Ikom and Ogoja, yesterday January 7, 2026. The scheme is collaborating with a publicly funded financial institution, Bank of Industry BOI and Zenith Bank PLC.
What caught my attention in the statement that was sent out is the requirement number 6. Amongst others, applicants are asked to come with a N13,000 Registration Fee for “Search and Customized ATM.”
READ ALSO: Gov Soludo mourns loss of three Anambra brothers in Lagos fire tragedy
Let me explain why it caught my attention immediately. When yours sincerely handled the #JariBurs initiative which distributed bursary funds to students in Cross River North Senatorial district, in the first 24 hours that we opened the application portal, we got over 11,000 applications and the number kept sky rocketing till the last day. Several persons working with Sen Jarigbe Agom who provided the funding, called yours sincerely on phone and tutored me on the need to sell forms for registration and make money off the scheme.
Their calculation was that if we sold forms at N5000 each to the 11,000 initial applicants, we would make 55million Naira and if we sold the forms for N2000, we would make N22million. But I politely declined and explained the kernel of the bursary initiative to them. Several of them were angry and only fell short of calling me unprintable names.
The same thing happened with the Senator Owan Enoh MSME Support Program, which I also handled. We had over 40 thousand applicants in the first phase. Their calculation was that if we sell forms to the 40 thousand applicants at N2000, we will get N80 million to share and if we sell the forms for N5000, we will have 200 million Naira, to share. My position has always been that, since these funds are not from a business venture capital, I will not be party to exploiting the desperation of our people who are seeking assistance to enrich myself, regardless of the fact that I need money myself.
I have followed carefully since the last administration up to this one, how several schemes and initiatives proposed by government are used to scam desperate citizens who are merely seeking help for survival, through purchase of forms and registration fees. From employment schemes to scholarship schemes to empowerment schemes, those put in charge of these initiatives resort immediately to selling forms and tasking registration fees and in most cases, none or most of those who pay are not given anything at the end and they usually have no case to make. The target is usually to amass the money and share it amongst those coordinating. They don’t care whether those who pay, get the assistance or not.
If not, why will a scheme funded with Cross River State government money, ask applicants to pay N13,000 registration fee for “Search and Customized ATM? If after paying, the applicant is not able to get the loan, will the money be refunded? Imagine the tens of thousands of young people that will register and how much will be available to share. Even if only 20,000 youths register, the coordinators will have N260million to share amongst themselves.
Even if the partnering commercial bank makes that registration a requirement, the Scheme can and should take up that payment for the applicants. Almost all banks in Nigeria charge only N1000 for the issuance of Naira ATM cards. Even commercial banks do not collect loan processing fees upfront. That’s a red flag. They remove it from the loan after approval. The major credit search bureau in the country, CRC Credit Bureau, offers individual credit scores at N400 and full reports at 5,000 for customers to search themselves, which banks also pay for. So what is the merit of the N13,000?
