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Press Release
30 August 2007
Development Minister Shriti Vadera visits Nigeria
The UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for International Development,
Shriti Vadera, is visiting Nigeria 30 August – 1 September. During her visit,
she will meet with His Excellency the President, the Honourable Federal Minister
of Finance, the Honourable Minister for Planning and other key Federal
Government representatives. She will also visit Kano State, where she will meet
with His Excellency the Governor and will visit a number of programmes in the
state supported by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
Shriti Vadera said:
“I am very happy that my first official visit as Minister for International Development is to Nigeria. This is a country which embodies some of the greatest development challenges, but also has the greatest potential. The key is to harness Nigeria’s vast natural resources and the resourcefulness and enterprise of its people to generate wealth and prosperity for all Nigerians.
“During my visit, I will launch a new state level investment climate programme (ICP)– a partnership between the Federal Ministry of Finance and ten state governors, with support from DFID and the World Bank – which will identify what needs to be done to improve the climate for creating businesses, jobs and wealth in Nigeria. Read the full speech on the launch of the ICP
“I will also travel to Kano to see for myself what DFID is doing on the ground in that state – things like helping improve its accounting systems to give the local government a better idea of where its money is being spent and backing a new way for delivering water to supply for 200,000 people in Wudil.”
The UK continues to work closely with Nigeria and is the largest bilateral donor, spending £100 million on its programme this year. UK support has helped several northern states boost the number of girls attending primary schools, drastically cut polio infections across the country and, through better budgeting, helped free up more spending for roads and power.
DFID’s focus is on supporting Nigeria’s efforts to generate growth and employment and to help the country use its own resources better for the benefit of the people. Shriti Vadera’s visit will also address electoral reform and the battle against corruption, both of which were raised in her discussions.
Notes to Editors
1. Nigeria is Africa's most populous country, where 70 million people live on less than one dollar a day. Supporting wealth creation and poverty reduction in Nigeria remains critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the continent. UK spending has increased in Nigeria from £35 million in 2003/04 to £80 million in 2006/07 and to £100 million in 2007/08.
2. The UK's position on the recent elections was set out in the
UK Foreign
Secretary's Statement of 23rd April - 'the elections held in Nigeria have fallen
short of international standards and were seriously flawed'. However, the UK
recognises the significance of Nigeria's first civilian-to-civilian transfer of
power and welcomes the establishment of the electoral reform panel which it is
hoped will lead to genuine improvements in Nigeria's electoral process.
The UK has urged those contesting the election results to do so through the appropriate legal channels and the judiciary has shown that it can act independently to support this aim. President Yar'Adua has acknowledged that April 2007 elections had their shortcomings and announced the establishment of a panel to review the electoral process, and raise the standard of elections in 2011. DFID will analyse what more needs to be done to make the 2011 elections better than 2007, and the support we might provide.
3. DFID support and advocacy has helped Government of Nigeria (GoN) to:
- Design and implement a system for monitoring expenditure of federal debt relief gains (c. $750 million a year), ensuring they are spent on poverty reduction.
- Identify savings of £850 million in the 2007 Federal Budget which will be invested in roads and power to support economic growth.
- Complete audits of the oil and gas sector covering the period 1999-2004 through which tighter scrutiny led the GoN to recover c. £500 million for 2004-05.
- Increase coverage of vital childhood vaccines (DPT3) from 38% to 72% between end 2005 and end 2006.
- Improve state level budgeting and accounting: Kano, Jigawa and Enugu States now produce realistic budgets on time; Kano State has developed new Charter of Accounts allowing better expenditure tracking.
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