Nigeria will receive a $600 million investment in port infrastructure from Maersk

Nigeria has secured a $600 million investment in port infrastructure from Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk, the presidency announced in a statement on Sunday.

The investment was secured during a meeting between President Bola Tinubu and Moller-Maersk Chairman Robert Maersk Uggla on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum meeting in Saudi Arabia.

“We believe in Nigeria and we will invest $600 million in existing facilities and ensure ports can accommodate bigger ships,” Uggla said during the meeting by the Nigerian presidency.

Nigeria has pledged to revamp its ports, including the commercial capital Lagos, to ease congestion that is hurting businesses.

Mr Tinubu told the gathering that his government would support the modernization and automation of its ports to improve trade, reduce corruption and increase efficiency.

“A bet on Nigeria is a winning bet. It is also a bet that pays more than you can get elsewhere,” he said. “We need to encourage more opportunities for revenue expansion and minimize transhipment from large ships to smaller ships. (Reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja and Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengalulu; Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Matthew Lewis)