Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga has cited 19 investments and proposed projects to defend President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms against criticism that they are driving investors away from Nigeria.
The list, issued on Saturday, 24 October, covers banking, energy, electricity, manufacturing, telecommunications and ports. It brings together operating facilities, investment decisions and preliminary proposals, rather than 19 completed projects.
Onanuga’s intervention was reported by Punch and News Central, which reproduced his comments on X. He accused opposition figures of ignoring developments that he said demonstrated continued investor interest under Tinubu’s administration.
Among the projects cited were TotalEnergies and AMNI’s Ima gas development, MTN’s Dabengwa data centre and DP World’s proposed port and economic zone in Ogun State. Company announcements establish different stages of progress for those developments.
TotalEnergies announced a final investment decision for Ima on 23 September. The French company holds a 40 per cent interest and operates the project, while Nigerian partner AMNI holds 60 per cent.
The field lies in shallow waters near Bonny Island, across offshore licences OML 112 and 117. Its development will involve a single platform connected to Nigeria LNG through a 22-kilometre pipeline.
Production is expected to begin in 2028 and reach 350 million cubic feet of gas daily at plateau. TotalEnergies says the field will supply about a third of the gas required for Nigeria LNG’s ongoing Train 7 expansion.
Nicolas Terraz, the company’s exploration and production president, linked the decision to government incentives for non-associated gas developments. The company also said about 60 per cent of the development workforce was expected to come from host communities. Those production and employment figures remain projections.
DP World’s own announcement describes two memoranda of understanding with the Ogun State Government and Ogun Deep Sea Port Company to explore a new port and special economic zone. Tinubu attended the signing ceremony.
The proposed development would occupy a 10,000-hectare site along the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. It would combine port infrastructure with manufacturing and logistics facilities. The agreements establish an exploratory framework; they do not establish that a port is already operating.
DP World chief executive Yuvraj Narayan described the memoranda as reflecting the company’s long-term commitment to Nigeria. The operator says it already employs more than 7,000 people in the country, including in market access and logistics businesses. That existing workforce is separate from jobs envisaged for the proposed Ogun development.
The banking entries reported in Onanuga’s list include JPMorgan’s application for a merchant banking licence and Absa’s consideration of expanding into merchant banking. These represent regulatory and strategic processes, rather than confirmation that either proposed operation has opened.
MTN’s project has reached a different stage. The company’s first-half 2025 earnings release records the launch of the first phase of its Dabengwa Tier 3 data centre in July 2025.
MTN also announced its Enterprise Cloud Platform alongside the facility. The company places the data centre in Ikeja, Lagos, and describes a two-phase development, with planned total capacity of nine megawatts. The facility is named after former MTN chief executive Sifiso Dabengwa.
Official portrait of President Bola Tinubu: Nosa Asemota, 29 May 2023. Archive portrait, not a photograph of the October statement or cited projects. Source, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized and placed on a landscape canvas for prepared artwork; photographic adaptations retain that licence.
