Despite a decade of relatively strong, oil-driven economic growth — averaging 7 percent of gross domestic product — Nigeria continues to struggle with enormous development challenges. The nearly $400 billion in oil revenues the Nigerian government has earned since gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1960 have done little to alleviate poverty and 64 percent of the country’s estimated 158 million population continues to live on less than $1 a day. Today, Africa’s most populous country is home to 10 percent of the world’s out-of-school children, 10 percent of global child and maternal deaths, and a quarter of all malaria cases worldwide.
Nigeria’s precarious political and security climate has been among the key factors hampering the country’s overall development. Poor governance, especially the misuse of public funds and oil revenues, is one of the country’s most endemic and persistent problems. Most notably, security concerns in the north and violent disputes over oil revenues in the Niger Delta risk spilling over and further disrupting the country’s already fragile government institutions and systems.
The United Kingdom is dedicated to helping build a stable and prosperous Nigeria. Aid from the U.K. Department for International Development has increased some 116 percent between 2010 and 2015 — the second-largest increase in U.K. aid after Somalia.