British High Commissioner commends Tinubu’s economic reform initiatives

…Says Tinubu’s economic decisions are being noticed globally

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery on Wednesday said that the bold economic initiatives taken by President Bola Tinubu are being noticed around the world and will attract investments into the country.

Montgomery who stated this while speaking to reporters after his meeting with Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, noted that ministers and businesses in the United Kingdom are “responding very positively” to the first policies of Tinubu’s administration including fuel subsidy removal and unification of foreign exchange rates.

He said the meeting with the Nigerian Vice President was fruitful, as it focused on how to ramp up bilateral relations between the two countries, particularly in the area of boosting economic engagements.

He said the removal of petrol subsidy and the exchange rate reforms by the new government are “big economic decisions” being notices around the world and they are important to attract investments into Nigeria.

.“As I discussed with His Excellency, the big economic decisions being taken by this government are really important and are being noticed around the world.

“The removal of subsidy; the exchange rate reform and all of that create a much better investment environment.

“I was in London last week; I was briefing my ministers, but I was also talking to British business in finance, banking and investment sectors.  They are all responding very positively to these first decisions.” 

Acknowledging the tough times Nigerians face with the economic decisions of the Tinubu-led  administration, Montgomery said that his discussions with Vice President Shettima touched on the measures that would cushion the impact on the people.

“We know that there are tough times that are going on at the moment—inflation and unemployment.

“The vice president and I also touched on some of the measures that might be possible to cushion the blow of some of these economic pressures.

“But I think the big issue is that these reforms will help put Nigeria on a higher growth path; they will attract more investments and the United Kingdom and the city of London see Nigeria as a big opportunity going forward.

“We have many areas of shared interest, including a good history of development cooperation; some excellent trade and investment arrangements and we have also had some good cooperation on security and defence,” he said.

The UK High Commissioner said that the meeting also had talks on home affairs, justice as well as on people-to-people links that means education, health and a number of issues to do with on how to improve relationships in the future.

“I will be doing my part to try to boost those, enhance trade and investment.”

On the recent announcement that the British government would no longer give visas to dependents of students from other countries, Montgomery said it did not come up at the meeting with the vice president.

However, he said that there was need to put the issue in “a wider context,” considering the number of visas given to Nigerian students in the last few years.

“Last year, for example, the United Kingdom granted 3 million new visas of which 325,000 of those visas were between Nigeria and UK.

“So, Nigerian visitors constitute over 10 per cent of the people coming to London and the UK.

“On the issue of students’ visas, I would also like to provide the context; that the number of Nigerian students coming to the UK has increases fivefold in the last three years.

“It is a fantastic success story for our universities and we are really delighted that so many Nigerians are coming to the UK.

“The issue about restrictions of people bringing dependents; that is not just for Nigeria but many parts of the world; many more students are trying to bring their dependents with them; and I think there are two issues here.

“The first is it is not always possible to find housing services to meet all the needs of all our existing students’ population.

“Secondly, I think reasonable people will accept  that we have to manage our visitor numbers and that we have to manage migration in and out of the UK; just as the Nigerian government does for your own borders.”