The United Kingdom Minister for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch, has arrived in Nigeria on a three-day visit, reports The Nation.
The visit is intended to strengthen ties between the UK and Nigeria, according to a statement from Ndidiamaka Eze, Senior Press and Public Affairs Officer and Communications Lead, Prosperity and Economic Development.
Along with the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to Nigeria, Helen Grant, Badenoch will meet with investors and business leaders from both Nigeria and Britain, as well as state governors and the federal government.
“Through these meetings, she will explore current and potential investment and trade activities from education to infrastructure and energy projects, with a potential to create thousands of jobs.
“Minister Badenoch will look to further strengthen the UK-Nigeria partnership, remove barriers to trade and investment, grow business between the two countries, and ensure the City of London’s enabling role for international business is more accessible to Nigeria,” the statement read.
Prior to this tour, Badenoch made news for criticizing Nigerian politicians and charging them with embezzling public monies for personal use when she was vying to unseat Boris Johnson as prime minister in 2022.
Speaking about her formative years in Nigeria, she claimed that the political elite there had a tendency to make bold claims and then break them.
“I am running for prime minister because I am ambitious. I am ambitious for our country and for our party. I chose to be the conservative MP to serve and choose this country because here, I can be free and do anything I want to be here,” she said.