Despite its economic growth and young population, the country continues to face development challenges. Its economy is heavily dependent on oil, and it faces security challenges from insurgencies and terrorist groups. Simmering ethnic and religious tensions, wealth disparities, a brain drain of talent to higher income countries, and vulnerability to climate change are just some of the issues which confront federal and state governments.

The current and previous UK governments have mentioned Nigeria in several key policy statements, describing it as a “rising power” with which the UK should “deepen investment ties and work together”. The Foreign Secretary has emphasised his desire for a relationship with Africa that prioritises “partnership not paternalism”. Despite this intention, there are still many questions unanswered about what the UK’s policy regarding its development partnership with Nigeria will look like: where its priorities will lie; how it will work with Nigerian Government and society to help tackle the challenges; how it will support a transition away from fossil fuels.

This new inquiry will explore remaining questions over the UK’s development relationship with Nigeria. These could include how the UK can help support Nigeria to develop governance and tackle corruption, how UK investment could help Nigeria transition away from fossil fuels, and how the UK can work with civil society to promote peace in the Sahel.

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It will examine how the UK can continue to deliver high impact international aid and development assistance in the face of a 40% budget cut as the Government seeks to fund increased defence spending in the name of national security.

Based on the most recent forecast for GNI, the cut in ODA from 0.5% to 0.3% of GNI would mean that the aid budget in 2027 would be around £9.2 billion, compared to £15.4 billion if ODA was kept at 0.5%. Based on these estimates, the 0.3% target would provide about £6.1 billion less ODA than the 0.5% target.

The US has historically been by far the world’s largest aid donor in absolute terms, providing around 20% of all aid by OECD DAC Members each year. In February, the State Department said that USAID programmes to the value of $54 billion will be ended and $4.4 billion of programmes from the US State Department. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that 82% of all USAID programmes would be ended (around 5,200 of the 6,200 programmes). Germany and France have also announced a cut to their ODA.

The reduction to 0.3% of GNI allocated to development assistance, to fund an increase in defence and security spending, and drastic reduction of aid provided by the UK’s partners, mark an inflection point for the Government – one the Committee wishes to investigate and to add its voice.

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