Policy paper

Establishing the Nigeria-United Kingdom Strategic Partnership: joint communiqué

Published 6 November 2024

Preamble

The Federal Republic of Nigeria and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland share deep historical ties, enduring good relations, strong people-to-people links, economic interests, mutual commitment to Commonwealth values, and shared interests across regional and international peace and security.

On 4 November 2024, His Excellency Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Right Honourable David Lammy MP, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom (UK), agreed to elevate the bilateral relationship between the 2 countries to a Strategic Partnership.

The Nigeria-UK Strategic Partnership will provide a comprehensive framework for jointly achieving our shared objectives and further strengthening our bilateral relationship. It will build on and strengthen our existing bilateral dialogues across areas of mutual interest and benefit, including i) economic, trade and investment opportunities; ii) security and defence issues; and iii) migration, justice and home affairs. The Nigeria-UK Strategic Partnership also establishes a new bilateral dialogue focused on foreign policy and international issues, including exploring reforms of multilateral institutions and the global financial architecture. It confirms a commitment between the 2 governments to hold a biennial meeting, known as the Nigeria-UK Bi-National Commission, to enable high-level inter-governmental engagement across the full range of the Nigeria-UK Strategic Partnership.

The UK-Nigeria Strategic Partnership will include 6 pillars:

• Pillar 1: Growth and jobs, through implementation of our Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP) and economic programmes that deliver reciprocal growth to Nigeria and the UK, including by facilitating value addition and skills acquisition where appropriate, as well as cooperation on climate change and inclusive and sustainable green growth

• Pillar 2: Enhanced national security cooperation, though our Security and Defence Partnership (SDP), with emphasis on coordinated approaches across civilian government, military, and civil society that take into account good governance, human rights and community engagement, alongside wider defence cooperation. Our cooperation will address the broad spectrum of threats faced, including terrorism, cyber threats, and maritime issues

• Pillar 3: Migration, Justice and Home Affairs (MJHA) dialogue to ensure the safety, security and dignity of our citizens

• Pillar 4: Strengthening our international collaboration, through a new annual Foreign Policy Dialogue, covering common international challenges

• Pillar 5: A modernised development partnership, with a focus on mutual priorities, upholding best practice in the use of official development assistance and concessional finance, and avoiding development models that may encourage dependency

• Pillar 6: Sustained people to people links, to harness our respective demographic and diaspora resources

Across these 6 pillars, the UK and Nigeria will harness our collective expertise, resources, and leadership to achieve our shared objectives.

Pillar 1: Growth and jobs

Under Pillar 1 of the Strategic Partnership, the UK and Nigeria will work together to identify opportunities for mutual economic growth. This will be done by delivering the landmark ETIP, signed in February 2024, with a view to deepening our partnership across 14 identified areas and sectors of mutual interest, while reducing market barriers to increase Nigeria-UK business and trade. The UK will continue to support President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, including through providing targeted technical assistance to support the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Ministry of Finance (MoF) to strengthen and sustain the economic reform effort. Nigeria and the UK will also work to increase 2-way investment and exports to grow our trade, noting Nigeria’s desire to ensure local value addition. In line with the ETIP, both countries reiterate their commitment to sign a future memorandum of understanding (MoU) on investment between Nigeria and the UK. On greener growth, the UK and Nigeria will work together to generate investment and jobs in sustainable manufacturing, agriculture, and energy sectors. The UK will also continue to support Nigeria to access climate finance and will work with Federal and State government, as well as businesses, to address climate change in key sectors. Both countries will collaborate to facilitate and promote the trade of clean and sustainable products, technologies, and services.

Pillar 2: Enhanced mutual national security

Following on from the second UK-Nigeria Security and Defence Partnership (SDP) dialogue in February 2024 and the commitments made in the Joint Communiqué, we will continue our cross-government cooperation on defence, crisis management, counter-terrorism, interagency synergy, human rights doctrine and cyber security. To address mutual security challenges, the UK will continue to provide support to Nigerian partners through capacity building in counter insurgency and strategic communications. Both countries remain committed to promoting human rights dialogue and democratic values. The UK-Nigeria Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Cyber Security Cooperation, signed in February 2024, provides the framework for further collaboration over the next three years (2024-2027). In addition, the 2 countries will collaborate in the combat of illicit drugs, as well as in the fight against drug abuse and traffickers. Recognising the importance of the maritime sector in the economic development of Nigeria, both countries commit to further collaborate in the areas of maritime security to secure the territorial waters of Nigeria, including the Gulf of Guinea.

Pillar 3: Migration, Justice and Home Affairs

The UK and Nigeria are already working effectively to tackle threats to our respective countries on important areas including illicit financial flows, serious and organised crime, and illegal migration. Our well-established Migration, Justice and Home Affairs (MJHA) talks, which last took place in March 2024, will continue to provide a regular opportunity to review progress and combat issues as they evolve and emerge. The UK and Nigeria commit to provide a good and efficient visa service to each other’s nationals to enable 2-way business and defence collaboration. As agreed in the 2022 MoU on Migration, both countries resolve to facilitate regular, safe, legal and orderly migration. Both countries also reaffirm their commitment to returning nationals with no right to remain in each other’s territories, as mutually agreed in the 2022 MoU. We will also work together to tackle visa abuse, and remain committed to re-operationalising our Prisoner Transfer Agreement. On countering illicit finance, the UK and Nigeria will collaborate on detection, investigation, and prosecution, addressing illicit finance vulnerabilities and furthering our operational cooperation. Both countries commit to working together to lead efforts towards a more coordinated global approach to countering illicit financial flows, including reforming global financial centres, reducing the harms to development from illicit finance and improve the regulation of professionals enabling kleptocracy.

Pillar 4: Strengthening our international collaboration

The UK and Nigeria share a commitment to an open, inclusive, and rules-based multilateral and regional system, which upholds international law, including democratic principles, human rights, and state sovereignty. To further strengthen our foreign policy cooperation, the Nigeria-UK Strategic Partnership will establish a new annual Foreign Policy Dialogue at senior official level. This dialogue will provide a forum for formal foreign policy discussions on bilateral, regional and global foreign policy issues of mutual interest. The UK will continue to support Nigeria’s 4Ds foreign policy doctrine, based on Democracy, Development, Demography and Diaspora. The UK will also support Nigerian led-efforts in bolstering security and stability in West Africa and the Sahel, including its leading role in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Together, the UK and Nigeria undertake to work together to address misinformation and disinformation and counter the activities of malign actors in Nigeria’s region of influence. The UK and Nigeria will also explore greater collaboration on multilateral issues, including on: multilateral elections; reform of global decision-making bodies, such as the United Nations Security Council; international financial system reform; and the promotion of international norms.

Pillar 5: A modernised development partnership

Building on our decades-long development partnership, the UK and Nigeria are committed to sustainable and inclusive development, which supports our shared economic, trade and prosperity priorities. The UK and Nigeria will work together to enhance good governance, reduce poverty and humanitarian need, and support human capital development. This will include the provision of UK support for the implementation for the Renewed Hope Agenda, President Tinubu’s Health Sectoral Renewal Investment Initiative, and the new Social Safety Net (SSN). Nigeria and the UK are committed to a partnership that encourages long-term and sustainable development by building local institutional capacity and capability to address needs and priorities. Both countries believe that it is essential that development partnership is conducted on the basis of equal partners with mutual interests.

Pillar 6: Sustained people to people links

Our shared history and strong people-to-people (P2P) ties are a key asset to the Nigeria-UK Strategic Partnership, encompassing particularly strong educational, cultural, media, sporting, financial, arts, and civil society ties. Under Pillar 6, the UK and Nigeria will deepen our strong and vibrant people to people ties, harnessing the potential of the creative sector by seeking partnerships in the creative industries for mutual economic benefit. In this regard, both countries reiterate their commitment, in line with the ETIP, to explore the potential for the establishment of a film co-production arrangement between Nigeria and the UK. We will explore opportunities to build stronger links, including mutually-beneficial trade partnerships in areas such as higher education. The UK will continue to ensure that Nigerian citizens benefit from UK scholarship schemes, such as Chevening, GREAT scholarships, and the Going Global tertiary education partnership.

Through the signing of this Joint Communique to establish the Nigeria-UK Strategic Partnership by His Excellency Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the Right Honourable David Lammy, Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, the Governments of Nigeria and the United Kingdom reaffirm their commitment to further strengthen their bilateral relationship and to work together to achieve their shared objectives.