In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, expressed the willingness of his country to continue to support the West African country in various sectors of the economy and security.

The British High Commissioner, while speaking in Abuja, noted that Britain and Nigeria have very long-standing ties being wired by history and such will be leveraged to deliver a strong partnership.

“We wish to build on our economic relations in particular and the first decisions by the new administration show that it is going to take big decisions on the economy which I think will allow us to grow our trade, investment, and economic relations.

He added that the British government is awaiting the eventual appointment of ministers by President Bola Tinubu before taking needed steps toward strengthening the relationship between Abuja and London.

“And I think there are several areas where the UK government can step up our diplomacy, our bilateral relations with Nigeria. But of course, we await the appointment of new ministers so that we can have the diplomatic dialogue necessary to lay the grounds for some of those.

“I will say that there are six areas we would like to explore. The first is, long-standing development cooperation.

“And I think what the UK always needs to do when a new administration comes into place is, we need to understand the priorities of that administration and how we can adapt and work in mutual partnership and with our development programmes.

“The second is the economic area. We already have a good economic dialogue but we would like to take the next step and develop a form of a more enhanced trade and partnership – something I am quite keen to discuss with the new minister of trade and industry.

On security, Richard Montgomery stressed that Britain has already established a strong bond with Nigeria while adding that it is ready to continue with the partnership.

“The third area is security and defence, which we would like to evolve and take forward.

“We already have a good relationship on home affairs, with your interior ministry and other agencies, and that is an area where we would like to continue our collaborations.

“Finally, we would like to have a more systematic dialogue on foreign policy.

“Nigeria has played a very valuable role in regional and continental issues and the UK would like to have a more systematic foreign policy dialogue with the government of Nigeria once the ministers and advisers are in place.”