The United Kingdom (UK) has pledged to support Nigeria through the provision of a 10-million-pound concessional aid on climate action, to boost off-grid clean energy infrastructure.
Richard Montgomery, British High Commissioner to Nigeria and UK Permanent Representative to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), said this at a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum, on Thursday in Abuja.
Montgomery, who featured at the flagship interview platform of the NAN Forum, spoke against the backdrop of UK’s 2022 announcement of concessional aid for Nigeria to scale-up domestic financing for the infrastructure.
According to him, King Charles III is not just passionate about climate change and environment, also about Nigeria and had followed Nigeria’s challenges broadly on climate and environment for decades.
“In the UK, we have gone through a real shift and he has been a huge leader on this; the UK is now a much greener public debate and population than it was even five to 10 years ago.
“The UK’s Presidency of COPP 26 helped with that. I am also passionate about climate action because when the UK was President of COPP 26, I was the UK’s representative at the World Bank Board
“I think there was a move some years ago to boost partnership, so that there would be independent power producers like the zero power in Edo State.
“We have a lot of independent power producers but the whole system is not yet working for them and they are not entirely enabled to grow their businesses and become commercially viable.
“We need to make sure these public-private partnerships work in the future. The change in the foreign exchange regime will attract more investment in the energy sector.
“This potentially is another big upside to big economic reforms being taken now. Yes we understand times are tough and there is the need to debate about palliatives, to cushion economic pressures.
“In the medium term, we are really convinced that these big reforms and decisions that this government is taking will attract more investment, including into the energy sector.”
Montgomery, who had worked in different parts of the world including previously in Nigeria, took over from Ms Catriona Laing, who recently concluded a four-year term as High Comm
