By Chinelo Obogo
Danish shipping and logistics company, Maersk, has denied President Bola Tinubu’s claim that it has invested $600 million in Nigeria’s ports.
Despite a statement by the president’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga and a post made on the official presidential X handle detailing how Tinubu reportedly secured the investment during a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh at weekend, Maersk officials have said that no such agreement is in place and no deals have been signed.
Onanuga’s statement detailed how A.P Moller-Maersk chairman, Robert Maersk Uggla, reportedly discussed the investment with president Tinubu on the sidelines of a meeting discussing energy development and growth. The statement included a direct quote attributed to Uggla saying: “We believe in Nigeria, and we will invest $600 million in existing facilities and make the ports accommodating for bigger ships.”
Tinubu’s statement explained that his government would support the modernisation and automation of its ports to improve trade, reduce corruption and boost efficiency. He claimed that the purported Maersk investment would “complement the administration’s ongoing $1bn investment in seaport reconstruction across the eastern and western seaports of Nigeria”.
“A bet on Nigeria is a winning bet. It is also a bet that rewards beyond what is obtainable elsewhere. We need to encourage more opportunities for revenue expansion and minimise trans-shipments from larger ships to smaller ships,” he said.
But company officials said while Uggla did meet the president, no such deal had been signed.
“Maersk has been present in Nigeria for 35 years and, as a global provider of logistics services, we remain committed to develop opportunities for growth to people, the port sector and businesses locally. Therefore, it is natural to have an ongoing dialogue with the administration. However, we are not able to comment on any investment talks,” the company said in a statement.
Maersk is due to report first-quarter results on Thursday, which means that it limits what they can say publicly about the company’s activities.