Theresa May commits Britain to investing £70m in Nigeria in ambitious plan to create 100,000 jobs

BRITAIN is to launch a new £70m programme aimed at creating 100,000 jobs in Nigeria as part of an aggressive anti-poverty plan to raise the income of 3m people from the poorest parts of the country.

 

Nigeria currently has the highest number of very poor people in the world with 87m Nigerians living below the poverty line of $1 and 90 cents per day. British prime minister Theresa May who is currently on a three-nation African tour, highlighted this fact, stressing that that Africa needs to create 50,000 new jobs per day to keep employment rate at its current levels till 2035.

 

Currently in Nigeria, Mrs May met with business leaders yesterday and the event, Harriett Baldwin, the UK minister of state for Africa, said that her government is planning to do something to address the matter. Ms Baldwin, who led a business delegation to the event, was accompanied by about 29 UK companies and investors.

 

“We are here today to talk about technology links between the UK Fintech sector and the Nigerian Fintech sector and will bring inward investment in terms of this important sector of technology. Today, it is all about celebrating those links through technology and I am very excited that the prime minister is announcing today a new £70m programme that will create some 100,000 jobs in Nigeria and will also raise the income of 3m people from the poorest parts of Nigeria,” Ms Baldwin added.

 

According to Ms Baldwin, the event was organised to celebrate the role of growing businesses and entrepreneurs and also highlight the partnerships of both countries in the area of technological development. She added that the delegation consisted of various UK businesses were willing to invest the kind of capital that creates jobs.

 

Vice president Professor Yemi Osinbajo and the ministers of finance and power, works and housing, Kemi Adeosun and Babatunde Fashola, also attended the event. Professor Osinbajo said that the federal government was keen on driving technological development in the country to support the government’s economic growth plan.

 

He added: “I think just looking at some of the start-ups that we see today, many of them started while the recession was on and they proved by just a number of jobs, value and wealth created, that this is the future starting today. This is why we have started up first with the creativity and technology advisory group and many of these start-ups are members of this group where they help to formulate policies with federal government policymakers especially in fintech, which are some of the new areas we need to formulate policies."

 

According to Professor Osinbajo, there was the need to create the right environment for technology companies to thrive. At the event, he gave further assurances of the government’s commitment to support innovation in the country.

 

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