1Introduction
1.Nigeria experienced an unprecedented development in its history in 2015. Despite negative forecasting, the victory of Muhammadu Buhari in Nigeria’s presidential elections saw the nation’s first ever democratic and peaceful transfer of power to an opposition candidate. Since its return to civilian rule in 1999, Nigeria has experienced strong economic growth. Over the last decade, Nigeria has seen its economy grow by 5% or more each year. A rebasing of its GDP saw the figure reach £307.6 billion in 2013, making Nigeria the largest economy in Africa. Nigeria has, since the oil boom of the 1970s, been heavily dependent on its oil and gas sector for growth but is slowly diversifying. Utilities, manufacturing and construction were its fastest growing sectors over 2010–13, leading some commentators to suggest Nigeria is no longer just a petro-economy. Nigeria’s economic potential is considerable because of the size of its domestic market, its geographical position and its human and natural resources. With over 170 million people, not only is Nigeria Africa’s most populated country, it is also very youthful with almost half its residents aged 14 and below,2 creating the potential for a demographic dividend.3
2.Despite these figures, population growth of nearly 3% per year along with a regionally polarised and non-inclusive pattern of growth has led to slower increases in living standards relative to previous years. 120m Nigerians still live below or only just above the poverty line.4 More than 60% of those living in poverty are situated in the North while the poverty rate in rural areas is over three times greater than in urban centres.5 As a result, inequality has increased with the Gini coefficient (a common measure of income inequality) going from 0.40 in 2004 to 0.45 in 2013.6
3.Nigeria is one of DFID’s top five bilateral programmes and the second largest in Africa behind Ethiopia.7 DFID works across the country with Federal and State Governments and its programme implementers to assist with development in Nigeria. DFID provides no financial aid to the Government of Nigeria because of fiduciary risk and to avoid substituting Nigerian resources.8 Aid represents less than 1% of its GDP compared to a sub-Saharan African average of 10%. Rather, DFID describes the purpose of its programme in Nigeria as ensuring “Nigeria is able to deploy its own resources effectively towards the delivery of services.”9 In 2015–2016, 110 DFID Nigeria staff across four offices, situated in Abuja, Enugu, Kano and Lagos, helped to deliver a programme valued at nearly £220m.10 DFID focuses its efforts in eight out of 36 states and now spends more than 60% of its allocated funds in six northern states.11
4.The three main pillars of the current Operational Plan for DFID Nigeria for 2011–16 are:
- promoting better governance at local, state and federal levels, and helping to improve management of Nigeria’s own resources to benefit its citizens;
- improving the business environment to create jobs and incomes for poor people; and
- helping Nigeria to deliver basic services more effectively and efficiently.12
Fig 1: DFID funding in Nigeria by sector
Source: DFID, Development Tracker
As part of the DFID Bilateral Aid Review, DFID is currently undertaking a review of its strategy for Nigeria, which will result in a new five-year Operational Plan for DFID Nigeria.
5.Our inquiry follows on from a previous International Development Committee inquiry into “DFID’s programme in Nigeria” published on 23 October 2009.13 In 2009–10, DFID’s budget for Nigeria was £120 million.14 Since then, DFID has scaled up its Nigeria programme to £244 million in 2015–16 in line with the UK Government’s previous commitment to spend 30% of Official Development Assistance (ODA) in fragile and conflict-affected states.15 It is in this context we decided to hold an inquiry into DFID’s programme in Nigeria. We launched our inquiry on 16 December 2015 and called for written submissions on the following issues:
- How can DFID work most effectively to reduce poverty in the context of such inequality and ensure no one is left behind?
- How effective has DFID’s work on economic development/diversification been so far, and how might DFID support the Nigerian Government to ensure sustainable and inclusive economic growth into the future?
- How effective have DFID’s governance programmes been in enhancing transparency and accountability, and what could they be doing better?
- What impact is insecurity in the North of Nigeria having on DFID’s ability to reduce poverty in the region, and is DFID adapting its approach to work in conflict-affected areas?
- How effective has DFID’s work been in reducing the disadvantages women and girls face in Nigeria? What could it be doing better?
- How effective has DFID’s work been on improving education systems in the country, particularly in the most fragile states in the North? Given the recent agreement of the SDGs and the renewed focus on the quality of education, should there be a move towards supporting secondary and tertiary education in Nigeria?
6.We visited Nigeria from 28 February to 3 March 2016. We went first to Lagos, then to Kano and ended our visit in Abuja. We met State and Federal Ministers and officials, DFID staff, NGOs and a wide range of Nigerian people living in both urban and rural settings. Our full visit programme is set out as an Annex to this Report. We would like to express our thanks to everyone we met in Nigeria for the contribution they made to such an interesting and valuable visit, and particularly to the DFID officials who arranged our programme.
Fig 2: International Development Committee’s visit to Nigeria
|
Sector |
Visit activities |
Location |
Examples of DFID Support to this sector |
|
|
Governance |
- Visit to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) |
- Meeting with Senate President |
Abuja & Kano |
Deepening Democracy in Nigeria (DDiN1) [£35m]; Justice for All (J4A) [£52m];Voices for Change (V4C) [£41m] |
|
- Meeting with the Vice President |
- Meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives |
|||
|
- Roundtable with civil society on building a more accountable government |
- Meeting with the Governor of Kano State |
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|
Basic services |
- Visit to low-cost private school |
- Visits to public primary schools in both Lagos and Kano |
Lagos & Kano |
Education Sector Support in Nigeria (ESSPIN) [£140m]; Girls’ Education Project (GEP3) [£107m]; Women for Health (W4H) [£29m] |
|
- Visit to integrated Quranic school |
- Visit to general hospital |
|||
|
- Visit to nursing and midwifery college |
- Meetings with DFID partners including UNICEF, Malaria Consortium and Sightsavers |
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|
Economic Development |
- Meeting with DFID project on improving access to finance |
Lagos |
Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility (NIAF2) [£106m]; Financial Sector Development Programme (EFInA) [£39m]; Growth and Employment in States Programme (GEMS) [£91m] |
|
|
- Visit to the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) |
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|
- Visit to the Mile 12 Market |
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|
Conflict and fragility |
- Visit to Kuchingoro camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) |
- Dinner discussion with young girls supported by DFID programmes |
Abuja & Kano |
Nigeria Stability and Reconciliation Programme (NSRP) [£36m]; Life Saving Humanitarian Support in Northeast Nigeria [£34m] |
|
- Conflict briefing by UK Mission Officials |
- Attending a rally with ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ campaigners |
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7.This Report has used the evidence received, both in writing and across three oral evidence sessions:
- Session 1: Dr Kate Meagher, Associate Professor in Development Studies, London School of Economics, Josephine Osikena, Director, Foreign Policy Centre, Dr Sola Kasim, Research Fellow in Energy Economics, University of Aberdeen, Dr Leena Koni Hoffman, Associate Fellow, Chatham House, Alex Duncan, Director, The Policy Practice, and Joseph Hurst-Croft, Stakeholder Democracy Network.
- Session 2: Dr Joanna Härmä, Research Fellow, Centre for International Education, Chris Horn, Former Consultant, ICAI, Georgia Taylor, Director, WISE Development, Ojobo Atuluku, Country Director, ActionAid Nigeria, Dr Titilola Banjoko, Founder, Africa Recruit and Prudence Hamade, Technical Advisor, Malaria Consortium.
- Session 3: Professor Abdul Raufu Mustapha, Associate Professor of African Politics, University of Oxford, Dr Caroline Varin, Lecturer in Security and International Organisations, Regent’s University London, Professor Abiodun Alao, Professor of African Studies, King’s College London, Nick Hurd MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for International Development and Ben Mellor, Head of Office and Country Representative, DFID Nigeria.
We are grateful to all those that submitted oral and written evidence which has proved invaluable in helping to generate a list of recommendations we believe are vital for DFID to ensure its programme in Nigeria increases in effectiveness and efficiency.
3 Whereby the labour force temporarily grows more rapidly than the population dependent on it, freeing up resources for investment in economic development and family welfare.
5 World Bank, Nigeria Economic Report (July 2014), p 17
6 World Bank, The Center Cannot Hold: Patterns of Polarization in Nigeria (June 2014), p 33
7 DFID, ‘Development Tracker,’ accessed 20 July 2016
8 DFID, Nigeria Operational Plan 2011–2016 (December 2014)
12 DFID, Nigeria Operational Plan 2011–2016 (December 2014)
13 International Development Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2008–09, DFID’s Programme in Nigeria, HC 840–I
14 International Development Committee, Eighth Report of Session 2008–09, DFID’s Programme in Nigeria, HC 840–I
15 HM Treasury and Department for International Development, UK aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest (November 2015)
© Parliamentary copyright 2015
25 July 2016