Market News

A digitally altered Nigerian news broadcast that says President Bola Tinubu is planning to ditch the country’s currency for the dollar is being circulated online.

The video report shows Arise News anchor Ojy Okpe introducing Tinubu, who says: “We are planning to abolish the usage of naira and start using the dollar as our local currency” (here), (here), (here) and (here).

Reuters found no existence of the report on the Arise News website (here) or social media channels (twitter.com/ARISEtv), (here), nor evidence of any such statement made by the Nigerian president.

Responding to circulation of the video, Arise News said in a statement on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that it’s a fake report.

“ARISE News totally dissociates itself from a DEEP FAKE VIDEO making the rounds on social media mimicking the What's Trending segment's anchor Ojy Okpe,” the outlet said. “The digitally-altered video which claims that President Bola Tinubu plans to abolish the naira in favour of the dollar is the handiwork of Fake News peddlers” (here).

Presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale told Reuters: “That is not to be dignified with a response. It is a foolish thing. Certainly, it can’t be true.”

Lip movements by both subjects in the clip are also mechanical and out of sync, suggesting the visuals have been edited.

The clip of Okpe was likely taken from an Arise News broadcast on Aug. 24 when she was wearing the same outfit (here).

The clip of Tinubu was taken from a press conference in 2022 where he announced his intention to run for president (here) (here).

VERDICT

Altered. Arise News and Nigeria’s presidential office say the video is fake.

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