Outgoing British High Commissioner praises Tinubu’s economic reforms

Vice President Kashim Shettima has said that Nigeria’s ambition to build a $1 trillion economy will only be achieved through strong corporate governance, ethical leadership and closer collaboration between the public and private sectors.

At the 2026 National Corporate Governance Summit organised by the Institute of Directors Centre for Corporate Governance, the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, the Ministry of Finance Incorporated and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria held in Lagos yesterday, Shettima said the summit’s good governance theme aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda that seeks to build a resilient, competitive and $1 trillion economy through enterprise, investment and institutional reforms.

Similarly, the outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, said yesterday that President Tinubu’s economic reforms would put Nigeria on a better footing in the long term.

Montgomery said that although the reforms might have caused short-term pain for ordinary people, they were fundamental to restoring vitality to the economy.

Represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs, Dr Tope Fasua, he stated that good governance remains the foundation for sustainable economic growth, noting that weak compliance, regulatory lapses and poor ethical standards could derail the country’s development ambitions.

According to him, governance should not be seen as separate in the public and private sectors; rather, both must work together to drive economic transformation.

Shettima said that while government reforms can create an enabling environment through policies such as subsidy removal, foreign exchange reforms, and strategic sector reforms, it is the private sector that must translate those policies into investments, jobs, and national wealth.

He said the partnership between government and businesses must move beyond formal engagements to one built on regulatory transparency, accountability, fiscal discipline and innovation.

Describing corporate governance as the foundation of every successful enterprise, the Vice President said it builds the trust that attracts both local and foreign investment.

“Corporate governance is not a cosmetic exercise. It is the life support system of enterprise and the foundation of the trust that drives global capital markets,” he said.

Shettima noted that Nigeria already has a strong legal and regulatory framework, including the Nigeria Code of Corporate Governance, the Companies and Allied Matters Act, the Financial Reporting Council Act, as well as governance codes issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the National Insurance Commission (NIC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A statement by Dare Adekanmbi, Special Adviser to the Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr Zacch Adedeji, said the British High Commissioner spoke in Abuja during a farewell visit to the Revenue House in Abuja.

The envoy said: “To be in Nigeria over a three-year period where so much has happened for the good was awesome.

“And I know that a lot of the economic reforms are tough, and they can cause short-term pain for ordinary people, you know, devaluation, inflation, and so forth.

“But I stand by and continue to brief, including our new Prime Minister (Andy Burnham), who’s hoping to speak to President Tinubu at some point in the next couple of weeks, about how fundamental the reforms have been, whether the monetary work done by Yemi Cadoso at the CBN or the one initially done by Mr Wale Edun at the Ministry of Finance, and, of course, the work that you (Zacch Adedeji) and Taiwo Oyedele, now Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, have done on tax reform and the fiscal management.

“And I know that Nigeria is complicated. I know that budget and fiscal management are always particularly difficult because of the way the budget works in the National Assembly.”