Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 7
Seventh Report - Lagos calling: Nigeria and the Integrated Review
Published 29 Apr 2022
Paragraph 22
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee Implementing the Integrated Review in Nigeria All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The UK Government should be more proactive in initiating programmes that build the capacity of the Nigerian IT workforce. Such programmes have the potential to be beneficial to both countries. We recommend the FCDO lead a pilot skills development programme within the ICT sector that aims to address skills shortages in both Nigeria and the UK. This initiative, requiring close collaboration with other Government departments including the Home Office and BEIS, would be an approach that actively seeks to reduce the chance of a brain drain scenario by ensuring that a proportion of trainees are being trained for jobs they will fill in Nigeria. We recommend that the FCDO ensures in all such programmes rural areas are not sidelined and that candidates from these areas are enabled to participate.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report - Lagos calling: Nigeria and the Integrated Review (HC 202), paragraph 22, 29 April 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 July 2022 (deadline 29 June 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government partially agrees with the Committee's recommendation on a Nigeria delivery plan, stating that it does "not agree that we should publish a new integrated delivery plan within the next six months".
- The Government says an internal cross-government strategy already runs to 2023 and that it "will therefore look to refresh" it after the election, and will run a "light touch process" to develop One-HMG country plans "in due course".
- On the Benin Bronzes and colonial legacy it agrees with the recommendation, noting that museums operate independently of Government and decisions on collections are taken by each institution's trustees.
- It does not agree to quotas for the Nigerian civil service in skills programming, and does not agree to ring-fence support to human rights projects or British Council programming.
- It will continue funding the UK-Nigeria Tech Hub for 2022-23, and "potentially" to March 2025, "subject to final ODA allocations".