Tag: Richard Montgomery

Nigeria’s importance and global influence will continue to grow significantly in the coming decades, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Richard Montgomery, has said, underscoring why peace, resilience and institutional stability remain central to the United Kingdom’s partnership with Africa’s most populous nation.

Montgomery made the assertion in Abuja at the inaugural Annual Learning and Adaptation Event of the Strengthening Peace and Resilience in Nigeria (SPRiNG) Programme, where senior government officials, security agencies, development partners and civil society leaders gathered to review strategies for reducing violence and strengthening climate resilience across northern Nigeria.

According to the British envoy, Nigeria’s rapidly expanding population and strategic weight mean its role on the global stage will only deepen over time, a reality that informed the UK-Nigeria Strategic Partnership signed in 2024.

“Nigeria is one of our important diplomatic partners. The judgment that we make, and our minister’s, is that Nigeria’s influence will only grow. If it grows very fast, and you’re becoming a bigger population, the importance and influence of Nigeria is going to grow in the decades ahead,” Montgomery said.

He described peace and resilience as issues that are “absolutely central” to the partnership between both countries, stressing that recent events and international discourse around Nigeria make sustained investment in stability both timely and necessary.

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The two-day SPRiNG forum brought together key actors to assess evidence-based approaches to conflict prevention, institutionalise peace mechanisms and adapt responses to evolving security and climate change dynamics in the region.

The programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Montgomery explained that the UK-Nigeria security and defence dialogue spans both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches, emphasising institutional support to federal agencies, community-based initiatives, law enforcement cooperation and grassroots resilience.

“It’s about providing institutional support to the official agencies of the federal government of Nigeria. It’s about building community-based initiatives, law enforcement, and community resilience,” he said, adding that SPRiNG offers “a vehicle, a platform” for catalytic partnerships that promote long-term stability.

The event also featured remarks from a representative of the Coordinator of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, Major General A.G. Laka, while the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, formally declared the forum open through a representative, highlighting the role of strategic communication and inter-agency collaboration in national stability.

Representatives of the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim, and the Minister of Livestock Development, Alhaji Idi Mukhtar Maiha, drew attention to the links between gender inclusion, agropastoral livelihoods and security, noting that social and economic policies remain critical to peacebuilding outcomes.

In a context-setting presentation, SPRiNG Team Leader, Dr. Ukoha Ukiwo, said the programme’s impact is rooted in its evidence-driven and adaptive management model, stressing that conflict dynamics require solutions that are both flexible and preventive.

“Conflict is dynamic; our solutions must be too. Today was about validating the evidence and impacts of our intervention, learning from what, where and how we are making progress, and ensuring that our support to government and civil society partners is not just reactive, but structurally preventive,” Ukiwo said.

A high-level panel moderated by Kemi Okenyedo examined progress and emerging opportunities in strengthening peace and resilience.

Panelists included the Director-General of the Benue State Commission for Peace and Reconciliation, Ms. Josephine Habba; the Commissioner, Ministry of Internal Security, Kaduna State, Dr. Sulaiman Shuaibu; and Ms. Lantana Abdullahi of WOPPI, who called for the formal inclusion of women in peace and security architectures.

The forum ended with a Project Fair, allowing stakeholders to engage directly with beneficiaries and implementing partners and to assess the tangible “peace dividend” being delivered to communities in Benue, Kaduna, Katsina and Plateau states.

The SPRiNG Programme is a four-year initiative running from 2024 to 2028, implemented by Tetra Tech International Development in partnership with Nextier SPD, the Centre for Democracy and Development and the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue.

It seeks to strengthen institutional capacity for conflict management, boost public confidence in key institutions and create stronger incentives for peace across Nigeria.

• Says Nigeria one of biggest beneficiaries of Brexit

British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, says the trade value between Nigeria and Britain, which currently stands at 7.9 billion pounds (N16 trillion) has hit an unprecedented level.

Montgomery, who made this known in an interview on Wednesday in Abuja, said UK-Nigeria trade and investment relationships are currently being built on a post-Brexit set of rules that bolster trade ties with the potential for mutual economic benefits.

He said Nigeria is one of the countries that benefited the most from Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU), better known as Brexit.

Montgomery said Brexit had allowed more Nigerians to come and live, work, and study in the UK, culminating in the number of diaspora Nigerians in the UK increasing from 300,000 in 2021 to 550,000 in 2025.

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“I’d say in relation to the Nigeria-UK relationship, Nigeria has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit in terms of our visa regime, which has allowed more Nigerians to come and live and work and study in the UK.

“In 2021, we had an estimate that there were 300,000 people of Nigerian descent or nationality in the UK, a diaspora of 300,000, and now that has risen to 550,000.

“The diaspora from Nigeria has increased partly because of the post-Brexit immigration regime. So, Nigeria has been a big beneficiary of Brexit,” he said.

The British envoy explained that following Britain’s exit from Europe, the UK has had realignment in its economic relationships and freedom to do trade deals with wider countries outside the EU.

“So, Brexit is something that has caused a realignment in a lot of our economic relationships and some of those may look positive and some of them may look negative.

“I think that overall, UK has a lot more, if you like, independence and freedom to do trade deals with wider countries outside EU.

“At the moment I’d say the most obvious example is that our relationship with the U.S. is particularly constructive and is leading to these massive U.S. investments in the UK because of the economic freedoms enabled by Brexit,” he said.

Montgomery lauded the UK-Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP), which he said boosts trade relations by removing non-tariff trade and investment barriers to foster cooperation in priority sectors.

According to him, the ETIP, which also promotes collaboration with the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS), would scale the trade value by providing generous trading terms and tariff reductions on Nigerian products.

“So, I’m really delighted at our most recent trade figures. The 7.9 billion pounds or N16 trillion trade is the highest that it’s ever been between the UK and Nigeria. And so, it’s a very positive trajectory.

“The enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP) is exciting because it’s a mutually agreed set of sectors and issues on which the UK and Nigeria government are going to work on.

“It’s happening under the umbrella of our respective ministers, the federal minister of industry, investment and trade, and the UK business and trade minister,” he said.

He added: “The exciting thing about ETIP is, and you’ve used the word leverage, that’s precisely right.

“It identifies through mutual agreement the areas that the UK feels it has a comparative advantage in and the areas that Nigeria wants to create more economic opportunities in.”

Montgomery said the UK was not competitive in all sectors, but has major advantages in various sectors, including the financial services, new technology, financial technology, artificial intelligence and other digital platforms.

The British envoy said that in the creative economy, his country has some advanced manufacturing and advanced energy solutions, which are worth looking at, and credible in the Nigerian context.

He said the UK was doing a lot in higher education investments in the Nigerian education sector, as well as in the agricultural sector to boost Nigeria’s agricultural exports, considering its high potential.

“So, the ETIP identifies these priorities and we have ways of following up in each sector with the businesses and the government agencies on both sides that can unlock more investment and growth.

“The aim is mutual growth, it’s creating jobs in both our countries, and that’s why it’s really important that we realise that ETIP is mutually agreed and negotiated, it’s in both our interests,” he added.