Monday, February 17, 2025

No evidence Trump banned Nigerian politicians entering US

There is no evidence that Donald Trump banned Nigerian politicians from visiting the United States, contrary to a claim that appeared online during the U.S. president’s first full day in office.

“Breaking News: Trump has imposed a ban preventing all Nigerian politicians from visiting the U.S. for any reason,” said January 21 posts on TikTok and Facebook.

The posts also claim that Trump ordered a freeze on international Nigerian bank accounts and that 2 million Nigerians now face deportation from the U.S.

But there is no evidence that the new U.S. president ordered any such travel ban or financial freeze that targets Nigerians. Trump did, however, begin a promised immigration crackdown at the start of his term, but available immigration statistics suggest thousands, not millions, of Nigerians could be affected.


NO BAN OR FREEZE

Trump was inaugurated on January 20.

As of February 14, there have been 94 presidential directives, including executive orders, memorandums, and proclamations, published on the White House website and in the Federal Register. None of the directives include restrictions on Nigerian politicians or actions against Nigerian bank accounts or their holders.

Citing experts, Reuters reported on January 27 that investors were showing interest in frontier markets, like Nigeria, as they are unlikely to be in Trump’s direct firing line for things like tariffs and other policy shifts.


FACING DEPORTATION

Trump’s immigration policies have primarily targeted illegal border crossings from Mexico, with the president declaring a national emergency and a broad ban on asylum for migrants crossing the southern border.

But there is no evidence that 2 million Nigerians face deportation from the United States.

There were 3,690 Nigerian citizens on ICE’s non-detained docket with final orders for removal as of November 24, 2024, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document obtained by Fox News

Data from Pew Research Center, a think tank that conducts research on demographics, race, and ethnicity in the U.S., does not support the claim that 2 million Nigerians face deportation, a spokesperson for the organization told Reuters via email.

A spokesperson for the Migration Policy Institute, another think tank that conducts research and analysis on migration and refugee policies, said the organization estimates that all countries in Africa combined total around 3% (415,000) of the 13.7 million people it estimates live in the U.S. illegally.

The White House press office, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury did not respond to requests for comment.

The U.S. embassy in Nigeria and Nigeria’s embassy in the U.S. also did not respond to requests for comment.


VERDICT

No evidence. There is no evidence that U.S. President Donald Trump banned Nigerian politicians from entering the U.S., nor taken action on Nigerian bank accounts and their holders. The total Nigerian population in the U.S. is estimated to be less than 500,000, thus impossible for 2 million to be deported.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work.

Friday, February 14, 2025

Shell should take responsibility for oil spills, Nigerian community leader says before UK trial


Shell should take responsibility for environmental damage in Nigeria caused by oil spills, a community leader said on Thursday as a pivotal hearing in lawsuits brought against the British oil major began at London's High Court.

Godwin Bebe Okpabi, leader of the Ogale community in the Niger Delta, told Reuters that he was appealing to Shell's conscience to remediate the damage, which he said had "destroyed our way of life".

Thousands of members of the Ogale and Bille communities are suing Shell and its Nigerian subsidiary SPDC over oil spills in the Niger Delta, a region blighted by pollution, conflict and corruption related to the oil and gas industry.

Decades of oil spills have caused widespread environmental damage, which has destroyed the livelihood of millions in the local communities and impacted their health.

Shell, however, says the vast majority of spills were caused by illegal third-party interference, such as pipeline sabotage and theft, which is rife in the Niger Delta.

A Shell spokesperson said the litigation "does little to address the real problem in the Niger Delta: oil spills due to theft, illegal refining and sabotage, which cause the most environmental damage".

Shell's lawyers said in court filings that SPDC recognises it is obliged to compensate those harmed by oil spills even if SPDC is not at fault, but not where it has already done so or where spills were caused by "the malicious acts of third parties".

But Okpabi said Shell had made billions of dollars in Nigeria – which he called "blood money" – and had a moral responsibility to prevent and remediate oil spills.

"As we speak, people are dying in Ogale, my community," he said. "It is sad that Shell will now want to take us through this very expensive, very troublesome trial, claiming one technicality or the other."

He was speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London ahead of a four-week hearing to determine issues of Nigerian law and whether SPDC can be held liable for oil spills caused by third-party interference, ahead of a further trial in 2026.

The case, parts of which began nearly a decade ago, has already been to the United Kingdom's Supreme Court, which ruled in 2021 that the case should be heard in the English courts.

The lawsuit is the latest example of multinationals being sued in London for the acts of overseas subsidiaries, following a landmark 2019 ruling in a separate case.

By Sam Tobin, Reuters

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Video - Nigeria’s GDP per capita falls to U.S. $835



Nigeria’s GDP per capita has dropped to 835 U.S. dollars, a significant decline from its 2023 range of 1,597–2,460 dollars, according to the International Monetary Fund. The sharp decrease reflects the impact of inflation, a weakening naira, and widening fiscal deficits on the country's economy.

Chinese lithium firms take over copycat Nigeria refinery project

Two Chinese manufacturers have taken over a Nigerian company that raised eyebrows in 2023 when it started building a lithium refinery in the country using a name that was very similar to one of the biggest and best-known Chinese producers.

A joint venture between Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd. last year took a controlling interest in Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd., a firm developing a lithium plant in the north of the West African nation, according to company documents obtained by Bloomberg.

Nigeria-registered Ganfeng was founded by Chinese businessmen in 2022, and created confusion a year later when it hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the processing plant, which local authorities said will cost $250 million.

Shortly after the event, the company issued a statement to local media saying it had “no formal affiliation whatsoever” with Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium chemicals. A company representative offered no explanation as to why it was trading under a similar name.

Canmax and Jiuling’s takeover of the company — which corporate records show occurred in mid-2024 — brings financial clout and operating nous to the development of Nigeria’s nascent lithium industry, which has typically shipped raw ore to China for further treatment.

The investments signal that Chinese lithium companies are doubling down on efforts to lock down feedstock in anticipation of soaring future demand for the metal used in electric-vehicle batteries. They’ve been investing heavily in Africa’s lithium deposits from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after prices tumbled almost 90% from a peak in 2022.

Separately, Canmax also announced this month that it will invest over $200 million to develop two lithium mining deposits elsewhere in northern Nigeria, working with local company Three Crown Mines Ltd.

Shenzhen-listed Canmax is a large producer of lithium chemicals whose founder, Pei Zhenhua, made his fortune as an investor in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd., the world’s top EV battery maker. Pei and CATL co-own a separate lithium mining and processing joint venture. Jiuling is a chemical producer based in Jiangxi – one of China’s lithium mining hubs – and a supplier to CATL.

Nigeria has sizable untapped deposits of metals including gold, tin and lithium, but most extraction is done informally by so-called artisanal miners on a small-scale or manual basis.

The Nigerian Ganfeng signed an agreement in September allowing the company to mine lithium for 10 years under permits held by a firm owned by the government of Nasarawa state – the location of the plant under construction.

The first phase of the facility is due for completion by the middle of this year and the second phase four months later, said Ibrahim Abdullahi, the chief executive officer of the state’s development and investment agency. “Nasarawa state is pleased with this investment and welcomes more of it,” he said.

Canmax and Jiuling, which together own 75% of the Nigerian Ganfeng, declined to comment. Nigeria’s federal mines ministry didn’t respond to questions about the acquisition or how much lithium concentrate it will produce.

By William Clowes, Annie Lee and Nduka Orjinmo, Bloomberg

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Nigeria seeks to collaborate with India to speed up energy transition

Nigeria is seeking to collaborate with India to accelerate its energy transition plans, a senior Nigerian government official said on Tuesday.

Other than funding, Nigeria plans to seek technical assistance from India to implement its green energy plans, Agbu Kefas, governor of Nigeria's Taraba state, told Reuters on the sidelines of the India Energy Week.

"(The) world is moving towards green energy and we also have to move along. But the challenges we have is the funding to be able to meet up with this," Kefas said.

India is ramping up its non-fossil fuel capacity, planning to connect a record 35 gigawatts of solar and wind energy capacity to its grid during the fiscal year ending March 2025.

Nigeria has already urged the United States to provide it with funding to help Africa's leading oil producer accelerate its energy transition plans.

Kefas said alternative energy is also the solution for communities that have been unable to connect to the national grid.

Nigeria's power grid often suffers from frequent failures due to ageing infrastructure, under-investment and vandalism, resulting in frequent blackouts.