Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 19
Seventh Report - Lagos calling: Nigeria and the Integrated Review
Published 29 Apr 2022
Paragraph 49
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)
We applaud the important work undertaken by the British Council in promoting greater cultural ties and building on soft power assets. Similarly, the BBC World Service provides both a voice into, and a voice out of Nigeria, communicating British and Nigerian values and interests. We recommend that British Council funding for programmes that demonstrate synergy with the aspirations of the Integrated Review is ring-fenced. Funding for the BBC World Service should be sufficient to ensure that it remains the most popular and reliable source of accurate news and current affairs in Nigeria, as well as a relevant means of promoting cultural exchange.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Seventh Report - Lagos calling: Nigeria and the Integrated Review (HC 202), paragraph 49, 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".