Fact-check: Did FG Enter a $600million Investment Deal for Nigerian Ports with MAERSK?

Fact-check: Did FG Enter a $600million Investment Deal for Nigerian Ports with MAERSK? 

Claim: a video going viral mostly on X and Instagram platforms claims that the Federal Government of Nigeria has struck a $600million investment agreement with MAERSK, a  Danish shipping and logistics company. 

Full Text: In the 1 minute, 27 seconds video, the Managing Director of Oil and Gas Free Zones, Bamaga Jada was seen sitting with the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mrs Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite, while the MAERSK Shipping and Logistic company team was sitting on the left flank.

The footage of the video saw Mr  Bamaga Jada welcoming the  Chairman of MAERSK, Mr Robert Uggla, where the former exuded the confidence that “with such investment Nigerians stand the chance of getting one million jobs.”

Then, next to speak according to the claim was the CEO of MAERSK, Robert Uggla, who assured that his  company will invest such a huge amount of money in Nigeria’s shipping industry, and even expand Nigeria’s ports.

While speaking, the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry Mrs Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite thanked MAERSK for considering Nigeria worthy of such huge investment.

Her words: “We thank you for actually coming forward with your commitment of investment, for me it is actually what I want the rest of Nigerians to see, and to hear, and to be rest assured that it will get better. We are committed, and we are assuring Nigerians that there will be jobs.

“….. sitting down here we just created three million jobs, in three days we still have the opportunities of creating five million jobs. So what we are doing.

“We will support you in every way we can, remove all the bottlenecks and make sure there is ease of doing business”.

Verification: a combined google search of relevant keywords revealed that recently, reports made the rounds that President Bola Tinubu and the MAERSK’s Chairman, Robert Uggla, held closed-door talks on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In a statement by Tinubu’s spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, titled ‘President Tinubu meets Chairman of Danish shipping giant Maersk; secures $600 million investment in Nigerian seaport infrastructure,’ he quoted Uggla as saying, “We believe in Nigeria, and we will invest $600m in existing facilities and make the ports accommodating for bigger ships.”

Tinubu had stated that such an investment would complement the administration’s ongoing $1bn investment in seaport reconstruction across Nigeria’s eastern and western seaports.

The  post of the said agreed investment by MAERSK was later deleted by the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga on his X platform after initially sharing Mr Ngelale’s statement.

To get the source of the video in circulation, PRNigeria fact-check split  the video into keyframes and subjected the same to reverse image search. Results revealed that there were series of alterations in the video footage, compared to the original video footage posted by the Minister of Investment Trade and Industry Mrs Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite on her X handle, formerly Twitter, because both the voices and actions of the people speaking therein are mismatched.

Further keyword searches, to verify whether the federal government and MAERSK had truly reached an agreement for such a huge investment in Nigeria, and our investigation revealed that the Danish company denied entering into $600 million investment deal with the Nigerian government.

Also, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, has retracted, stating that no agreement or deal was signed between the Nigerian government and the shipping giant, Maersk.

Conclusion: based on facts gathered, PRNigeria fact-check finds that while there were talks between the Danish company and the Nigerian government on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia between MAERSK and President Bola Tinubu, there was no tangible agreement reached yet by the both parties. 

PRNigeria therefore concludes that the video claiming that the Federal Government of Nigeria has struck a $600million investment agreement with MAERSK is MISLEADING 

By PRNigeria