According to Lloyd’s List, the company said that its Chairman Robert Maersk Uggla met President Tinubu over the weekend, but no new investment deal was signed.
Maersk has denied any knowledge of a $600 million investment secured by President Bola Tinubu with the Danish shipping and logistics firm.
According to Lloyd’s List, the company said that its Chairman Robert Maersk Uggla met President Tinubu over the weekend, but no new investment deal was signed.
A statement issued by the Nigerian Presidency on Sunday said the Chairman of A.P Moller-Maersk, Mr. Robert Maersk Uggla, disclosed the decision during a meeting with President Tinubu on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the same day.
“We believe in Nigeria, and we will invest $600 million in existing facilities and make the ports accommodating for bigger ships,” Uggla was quoted as saying.
However, this appears to be news to Maersk.
According to the report, despite a presidential statement from Tinubu detailing how he had secured the purported $600 million investment during a World Economic Forum meeting in Riyadh over the weekend, Maersk officials have confirmed that no such agreement is in place and no deals have been signed.
Despite the direct quote credited to Uggla in the statement released by the presidency, according to Maersk, that deal does not exist.
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,” the company said in a statement to Lloyd’s List.
“Therefore, it is natural to have an ongoing dialogue with the administration. However, we are not able to comment on any investment talks.”
Maersk is due to report first-quarter results on Thursday, meaning that the management is in a regulatory quiet period limiting what they can say publicly about the company’s activities.
Nigeria has promised to revamp its ports, including in the commercial capital Lagos, to ease congestion.
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,” he said. “We need to encourage more opportunities for revenue expansion and minimise trans-shipments from larger ships to smaller ships.”
Also, according to the statement by the Tinubu presidency, the deal would help in expanding port infrastructure to accommodate more container shipping services in Nigerian ports.