Nigerians hoping to receive the Federal Government's ₦50,000 relief fund do not need to register, queue or visit any office, according to the programme's official website. Beneficiaries are picked from existing government records and alerted by SMS, after which they can check their status, accept the grant and collect the cash through five approved payment providers, using either a basic phone or a smartphone app. Here is how each route works, as laid out on the site.

The relief is delivered under the National Emergency Relief and Stabilisation Intervention (NERSI), which the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction announced on October 30 as a response to rising food inflation and the high cost of essential goods. The NERSI website states that beneficiaries are drawn from the National Social Register and verified national identity records, then screened for need. Payments are released in phases and only a limited number of households are covered at a time, so not everyone will be notified together. For households, that phasing makes the provider's SMS the event to watch for, with the USSD codes the way to see whether a later wave has included them.

Six steps to check and claim the relief fund

1. Wait for the SMS. The NERSI website explains that a selected beneficiary receives a text from ALAT, MoMo PSB, NairaGram, OPay or Moniepoint. The message announces the grant, lists a helpline and shows the code to dial to accept.

2. Check your status by USSD. The site tells people to dial their provider's code and choose “Check eligibility”. Anyone not yet selected will see a message saying they are currently not selected, which the portal describes as a matter of phasing rather than permanent exclusion. The codes listed for each provider are:

• ALAT (digital bank of Wema Bank): *945*23*Account Number*Amount#
• MoMo PSB: *671*0#
• NairaGram: *726*00#
• OPay: *955*20#
• Moniepoint: *5573*27#

3. Accept by dialling the code in the message. According to the site, no money is paid without consent. It adds that a person who declined by mistake can dial the code again and switch to yes.

4. Use the app instead. The NERSI website notes that smartphone owners can use the apps offered by MoMo PSB, OPay and Moniepoint, while basic-phone users need no data or internet because the USSD codes work offline. Separately, OPay has told customers how to check grant eligibility.

5. Open your wallet. The portal says the grant is paid into a mobile wallet linked to the beneficiary's phone number and National Identification Number (NIN), tying the payment to the beneficiary's verified identity record, and the provider then confirms the credit by SMS.

6. Spend, transfer or cash out. Per the website, the ₦50,000 can be spent from the wallet, sent to a bank account or withdrawn through a POS agent, which it calls the quickest route. The site says the grant is free to receive, though it concedes that agents may charge their usual withdrawal fee.

NERSI warns of scams

The NERSI website devotes a large section to fraud, and a cash offer by text does look much like a scammer's message. Its three-point test says a genuine notification comes from one of the five providers, asks only that you reply or dial your provider's code, and never requests money, a PIN, an OTP or a click on a link. All three checks rely on details visible in the message itself, so a recipient can apply them before responding to anything.

The site also warns that nobody can speed up a payment or add a name to the list for a fee. Anyone who is asked to pay should stop and call the programme helpline on 0700-022-2222 before doing anything else.