Fake news dissemination on COVID-19 has increased in recent months, and the factors that lead to the sharing of this misinformation is less well studied. Therefore, this paper describes the result of a Nigerian sample ( = 385) regarding the proliferation of fake news on COVID-19. The fake news phenomenon was studied using the Uses and Gratification framework, which was extended by an "" motivation. The data were analysed with Partial Least Squares (PLS) to determine the effects of six variables on the outcome of fake news sharing. Our results showed that was the most significant factor that predicted fake news sharing of COVID-19. We also found that social media users' motivations for and predicted the sharing of false information about COVID-19. In contrast, no significant association was found for motivation. We concluded with some theoretical and practical implications.