11 Aug 2020

Ministry of Finance and Economic Development has labelled fake a Facebook post circulating on various social media platforms headlined “GREAT NEWS FOR ALL BATSWANA ENTERPRENUERS”.

  In a media release, the ministry’s head of public relations Mr Fenny Letshwiti warns members of the public and stakeholders that the post may be the work of scammers.

The release says the post in question gives the impression that the International Monetary Fund executive board has approved a huge fund in the form of interest free loans targeting Botswana SMEs and individual entrepreneurs to assist them to survive the current hard economic times.

According to the release, the post states that loan terms include one to three percent interest and an extended grace repayment periods and further provides a link for online application being, https://sites.google.com/view/imfloanfacility/home.

“There are no grants offered by the ministry as  alleged on the Facebook post. The link shared on the post should not be followed as this might be the scammers’ way to swindle the public of their hard earned money,” it says. 

The release explains that the ministry uses official government emails accounts to communicate with all its stakeholders and never uses Gmail and Yahoo accounts.

The ministry verified and presently uses its new name contrary to the one posted by the scammers being “Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning”,  says the release. BOPA