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As the UK leaves the European Union, the City of London will play an even greater role in financing the fastest-growing economies across Africa and the world, the Prime Minister said today in Nigeria.

UK-Nigeria trade was worth £4.2 billion last year and British companies including British Airways, GSK, Shell, Diageo, Unilever and Standard Chartered have successful and long-established operations in Nigeria, many of which date back to the 1930s.

111 African companies have already come to the UK to list on the London Stock Exchange, to raise money in one of the world’s leading financial centres. Today the Prime Minister and International Development Secretary welcomed announcements from two African companies to list on the London Stock Exchange.

Aliko Dangote, the Chairman of Dangote Cement, prepares to list shares in his $10 billion business in London in 2019, while Seplat’s $350million Eurobond was admitted for trading in London today.

The Prime Minister also announced a deeper collaboration between London and Lagos – setting up the first UK-Africa FinTech partnership which will use the City’s expertise to support African entrepreneurs, improve access to financial services for consumers and encourage new investment.

Secretary of State for International Development Penny Mordaunt said:

These exciting new African listings on the London Stock Exchange and first UK-Africa FinTech partnership are indicative of the City’s position as the world’s leading financial centre.

With the help of the City of London to raise capital and share expertise, Nigeria and other African nations can support their entrepreneurs to develop successful businesses, stimulate growth and create jobs. Supporting economic growth across Africa will in turn boost prosperity globally, which is in all our interests.

Britain is a leading global hub for FinTech which contributes over £5 billion to the UK economy every year and Lagos is at the forefront of FinTech innovation in Africa. The first UK-Africa FinTech partnership will use the UK’s unique expertise to support African entrepreneurs; improve access to financial services for consumers; and encourage new investment, via the Department for International Trade’s existing FinTech Board.

African entrepreneurs will be connected with UK FinTech investors and business mentors to access the finance and advice they need to start and grow their companies, while a dedicated fund worth up to £2 million will support Nigerian innovators as they turn their ideas into successful businesses.

To support African entrepreneurs and help British companies enter this rapidly expanding market, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will work with regulators in Africa to share the UK’s successful experience of developing regulation and policies that encourage innovation and protect consumers. FCA and Central Bank of Nigeria have today agreed to explore the potential for deeper engagement and cooperation in developing the best possible regulatory frameworks to allow fintech to flourish in Nigeria.

Today’s announcements highlight the mutual benefits of closer financial co-operation to both the UK and Africa.

It builds on the existing partnership between the London and Nigerian stock exchanges, and the recent visit of the Lord Mayor of London to Nigeria which has created momentum and willingness for closer partnerships.

It also highlights how the UK aims to be Africa’s financial partner of choice as we continue to help African nations to benefit from increased access to international finance, while investors benefit from access to new investment opportunities.

• the Prime Minister also announces measures to develop scientific expertise and create jobs across Africa through UK-Africa research collaboration
• projects will improve skills in big data, artificial intelligence and clean energy and build economic ties between the UK and Africa

As part of her trip to South Africa to deepen the UK’s business, trading, diplomatic and research partnerships with the country, the Prime Minister set out a more than £56 million ($72 million) contribution through the Clean Technology Fund to a $500 million investment in battery storage developed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank in partnership with the government of South Africa, fast-tracking the region’s access to clean energy.

Battery storage involves storing electricity so that it can be used later- important in filling in the gaps when its overcast or no wind. These batteries are a very real alternative to fossil fuels like coal and gas, making energy supply secure.

As part of her 3-day visit, the Prime Minister has also announced new projects that will develop closer research ties to help transform local economies by improving harvesting techniques and developing healthcare technologies.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said:

Investing in research, developing the skills of tomorrow, and tackling the global threat of climate change are key commitments of this government and are at the core of our modern Industrial Strategy.

Science and innovation has no borders with many of the best discoveries being international partnerships and collaborations. These initiatives will deepen our ties in these important areas with our African partners for years to come.

We know that tackling a future-defining challenge such as climate change requires big, new ideas. In the UK we have made support for clean growth 1 of our 4 Industrial Strategy Grand Challenges – but this is a challenge shared with our partners across Africa and internationally as the impact of climate change internationally affects us domestically as we know.

This project, the first of its kind in the region, will use an innovative technology to transform the country’s energy system, supporting South Africa’s long-term commitment to decreasing carbon emissions by developing bold, new renewable technologies – bringing about a climate revolution whilst also enabling the creation of thousands of jobs for young South Africans.

During her trip to South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, the Prime Minister announced a new phase of the UK’s support to the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) partnership. This new £3.7 million investment will fund training for 35 students to PhD and Masters level. It will see a new generation of radio astronomers develop their skills into other big data areas, helping develop and improve ways of managing land to help with harvests, as well as targeted health service provision so more people across Africa get the right treatments at the right time.

AI and big data is at the heart of the government’s modern Industrial Strategy and through the Artificial Intelligence Grand Challenge the government has recognised the potential opportunities that big data and AI could bring to the global economy, increasing productivity and delivering high value jobs.

Young minds across Africa hold the key to discovering brilliant, new solutions to the world’s challenges, and to maximising exciting opportunities for both British and African young people. This is why the UK is working with, and supporting the development of, the brightest research, academic and science talent from across Africa. Global Britain’s world-class offer in science, innovation and research can take these partnerships to the next level.

Showcasing the UK’s expertise in low carbon innovation, the government also today announced the next phase of the UK-Nigeria Climate Finance Accelerator. The initiative matches government, project developers, finance market players from Nigeria, with experts in climate finance and investment in green projects from the City of London. The UK can share expertise with Nigeria on how to invest in green projects, from increasing the country’s renewable capacity to improving the resilience of food chains.

Funding has also been granted to nine projects to develop food security through joint research. The work will focus on improving African farming systems and developing sustainable agriculture. Resolving some of the threats to produce include looking to the benefits of grass pea in drought-prone environments and using natural pest regulation to ensure the successful harvest of legumes.

As well as this, the government has committed £1.5 million to a new research fund to help African researchers study the effects of climate change and explore climate issues that are most important to them and their own countries.

Climate change is the most critical challenge facing the next generations – and Africa will be disproportionately affected by climate change, with temperatures likely to rise faster than anywhere else in the world.

That is why, as part of the UK’s new and distinctive offer to work alongside, invest in and partner with African nations, the government is bringing in even more of the UK’s world-leading climate experts to build on our existing partnerships – working with African governments to build climate resilience, cut emissions and ultimately, ensure we all meet the international climate commitments made in the historic Paris Agreement.

During the visit, it was also confirmed that the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which encourages ambitious and talented sub-Saharan African engineers to develop solutions to local challenges, will receive further £500,000 funding boost.

Dr Hayaatun Sillem, CEO of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said:

I am delighted by this boost to the Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, which is now in its fifth year. The additional funding will strengthen the Prize’s capacity to support talented engineers in developing local, scalable solutions to real-world challenges, and in contributing to socio-economic progress through their innovation-based businesses. It will particularly help in improving engagement with female engineering innovators, and in building networks of successful sub-Saharan African entrepreneurs to train and mentor the next generation.

• CDC Group, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, will aim to invest up to £3.5 billion in Africa, supporting hundreds of thousands of jobs.
• The UK will aim to mobilise a further £4 billion of private investment for African countries, particularly from the City of London.

The UK is announcing a range of measures to boost much-needed investment in businesses and infrastructure across Africa, the Prime Minister announced in Cape Town today (Tuesday 28th August). This includes for the first time ever setting a clear ambition of mobilising an additional £4 billion of private sector investment into the continent by working more closely with the City of London.

This comes as the Prime Minister has today also set a new ambition for the UK to be the largest G7 foreign direct investor in Africa by 2020.

Africa’s population is set to double by 2050 and as many as 18 million extra jobs a year will be needed. There is a chronic need for private and public investment to create better opportunities in Africa to prevent the next generation falling further into poverty, potentially fuelling instability and mass migration with direct consequences for Britain.

But this growth also means that the scale of the opportunity across Africa is huge: according to the IMF, Africa’s GDP is set to reach $3.2 trillion in the next five years.

Home to the City of London, the world’s leading financial centre, the UK is well-positioned to become Africa’s future investment partner of choice. Initiatives announced today in support of this include:

• CDC, the UK’s Development Finance Institution, will significantly increase its investment into Africa – aiming to invest up to £3.5 billion in businesses on the continent over four years. This will support hundreds of thousands of jobs, build stability and trigger growth in some of the poorest and most fragile countries.
• A new investment of up to £300 million of UK aid invested through the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) will build essential infrastructure such as power, roads and water, that will lay the foundations for new trading and business opportunities across Africa in places businesses previously would not have been able to operate.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said:

Africa’s emerging markets offer huge untapped potential to the UK. There is a massive shortage of investment, infrastructure and jobs in these markets, and the City of London is uniquely placed to help fill this gap while earning benefits for the UK economy.

We’re building mutually beneficial partnerships which are helping to stimulate long-term transformational growth and create good jobs for people in the world’s poorest countries, while also allowing UK investors to access the wealth of opportunity offered by African countries.

In addition to announcing a substantial scale up of investment through CDC and PIDG, the UK is setting a clear ambition to mobilise £4 billion of private investment, particularly from the City of London. In total, UK initiatives will generate up to £8 billion (around $10 billion) of investment for African countries between 2018 and 2021.

The UK’s commitment to building bigger, broader economic partnerships with African nations will prove a huge benefit to UK business and investors, while also accelerating the transformational growth needed to lift countries out of poverty for good and to forge mutually beneficial partnerships between the UK and African countries.

The City of London manages over £8 trillion of assets but at the moment only around 1% of those assets are invested in Africa.

This partnership will mobilise further capital from pension funds, insurance companies and other investors, enabling the City to take on an even greater role as Africa’s partner of choice for financial services as the UK leaves the EU.

This will create the opportunity to boost investment returns for the UK’s pension pot, while triggering essential long-term investment for African businesses, transforming the world’s poorest nations into the UK’s trading partners of the future.

As part of this new and distinctive offer to work alongside, invest in and partner with African nations for our mutual benefit, we will be bringing in more ‘Best of British’ experts including extra investment specialists, to work with African governments and businesses to unlock the private sector finance so critical to sustained growth, job creation and tackling poverty.

Notes to editors:

• There is a desperate shortage of private and public investment in the world’s poorest countries. The additional financing needed to achieve the UN Global Goals by 2030 is estimated to be $2.5 trillion every year, with current investment levels less than half of that.
• CDC aims to invest up to £3.5 billion in Africa over the next four years (2018-21). This is a combination of initial capital provided by the UK and returns made from CDC’s existing investment portfolio.
• All returns generated by CDC are reinvested time and again into more businesses, ensuring that every penny of taxpayers’ money is creating the jobs and economic stability that enable countries to leave poverty behind.
• In 2017, companies backed by CDC in Africa and South Asia employed nearly three quarters of a million people (734,000). CDC’s investee companies newly created 63,000 of these jobs in 2017.
• The Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG) is a Development Finance Organisation in which DFID is the majority funder, alongside seven other donors.
• The UK will invest up to £500 million in PIDG, of which up to £300 million will be allocated for Africa, to help governments develop projects that are able to attract private investment and provide new or improved infrastructure to people living in the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

Drivers, residents, businesses – and even runners at the Great North Run – are being urged to find out more about what is planned to improve journeys on motorways and major roads in the North East.

Highways England will be out and about in Gateshead and South Shields next month letting people know how its multi million pound programme will improve safety and create better journeys for people travelling around the region.

The company is using an exhibition van, to give drivers and local residents the chance to speak to staff from different sections of the business, in one place at the same time.

Highways England’s regional director Rich Marshall said:

This is a fantastic opportunity for people to come and speak to us to find out more about how much we are improving journeys in the North East area and also to raise any questions they might have.

We will have people working on long term projects, teams who focus on maintenance and traffic officers who patrol our network.

Using this exhibition van allows us to take our plans on the road and talk to the people that are directly affected by our work. If you can’t attend one of the events then there will be a chance to take part in a twitter question and answer session on the Friday using the hashtag #askHE.

The Highways England team will be outside the green mall at the intu Metrocentre, Gatehead NE11 9YA on Friday 7 September between 11.30am and 6.30pm.

On Saturday 8 September they will be attending the Pasta Party, Mill Road car park, Gateshead, NE8 5JB between 9.30am and 5.30pm

And on Sunday 9 September they will be at the finish line of the Great North Run at South Shields between 8.30am and 4pm

People can learn more about the events, and give us their feedback, on our events page.

Major projects planned in the North East

• A1 Birtley to Coal House
• A1 Scotswood to North Brunton
• A1 in Northumberland
• A19 Testos & A19 Downhill Lane
• A19 Norton to Wynyard
• A19 Coast Road

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer

• £1 million Digital Skills Innovation Fund will help people from underrepresented groups gain the skills they need to work in digital roles.
• An additional £400,000 will help older and disabled people get life-changing digital skills.

People from underrepresented groups with the potential to become tomorrow’s tech stars are set to be given new digital skills as part of a push to improve diversity in the digital economy and address local skills challenges.
A new £1 million Digital Skills Innovation Fund is now open for bids from Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Combined Authorities for initiatives which specifically aim to help people take up digital roles.

The funding will be used to help women, disabled people, people from minority backgrounds or those living in lower socioeconomic areas to succeed in digital roles such as data analysts, programmers, cyber security specialists, software developers and marketeers.

Research reveals 17 per cent of women make up the tech workforce and are underrepresented in the uptake of digital qualifications. Unemployed adults are five per cent more likely to lack the basic digital skills than the national average.

A new £400,000 Digital Inclusion Fund has also been launched to help older and disabled people acquire digital skills. Innovative projects are expected to include the teaching of basic skills such as booking GP appointments online, using apps to communicate with friends and family, and making the most of search engines.

The fund, which opens in September, will also harness the power of tech to get people online and support the Digital Strategy which sets out Government’s ambition to create a world-leading digital economy that works for everyone.

Minister for Digital Margot James said:

It is crucial everyone is able to take advantage of digital technology, whether it is to learn how to use the internet or develop the skills to work in a tech role.

If we want to maintain our position as a world-leading digital economy we need to work with industry, local authorities and the voluntary sector to develop solutions so no-one is left behind.

Local Enterprise Partnership Network chair and Digital Skills Partnership board member, Christine Gaskell, said:

As the rate of technological change and innovation continues, ‘tech’ is becoming increasingly integrated within every sector and industry. We share the aspiration to ensure that more people have the skills and creativity that will enable them to contribute to, and benefit from, new economic opportunities and deliver more inclusive growth.

There are huge opportunities for regions to benefit and Local Enterprise Partnerships have a vital role to play in helping people and organisations develop the skills they need to realise their potential. Any initiative with the aim to make more people tech savvy and to bring more women and young people into the sector to create new start-ups and unearth the next digital superstars has to be welcomed.

As such, we are working with Government through the Digital Skills Partnership to bring together key partners at national and local level to close the digital skills gap that currently exist.

John Fisher, Chief Executive, Citizens Online said:

We know it’s becoming increasingly important that everybody in our society has the skills and confidence to be online; yet disabled people are four times more likely to lack essential digital skills then the general population and 28 per cent of those over 60 are offline.

We’re delighted that this fund will test new ways of offering support to these marginalised groups, often with complex needs, to enable people to live better lives with the benefits that being online can offer.

These initiatives will complement Government’s existing work to boost digital skills provision across the country.
This includes £170,000 Government funding to support the Tech Talent Charter which is a commitment to ensure greater diversity in the tech workforce of the UK and implement recruitment and retention policies that will support women in digital and technology roles.

Our Digital Skills Partnership has seen Government, businesses, charities and voluntary organisations joining forces to deliver over 2.5 million free training opportunities in areas such as basic online skills, cybersecurity and coding.

In addition to this, the Government has established two Local Digital Skills Partnership pilots in Lancashire and the Heart of the South West which brings together businesses, charities, the education sector and public sector organisations to tackle local digital skills challenges to build thriving and inclusive local economies.

Notes to editors

• Contact the DCMS Press Office on 0207 211 2210.
• The Digital Skills Innovation Fund will open on 27 August and bids need to be received by 28 October 2018. Grants of between £200,000 and £500,000 will be available.
• It also aims to encourage collaborative working between LEPs, local government, voluntary sector, youth organisations, charities, employers and training providers to address local skills challenges and share good practice.
• The guidance document and application template is available on the Digital Skills Partnership GOV.UK page
• The Digital Inclusion Fund is being managed by Citizens Online and will launch in September 2018. The pilot projects will run up to January 2020.
• Citizens Online are digital inclusion experts, who have worked in over 50 communities across the UK since 2000. They help organisations make sure the switch to online doesn’t exclude people and are passionate about digital inclusion. Their approach is based on detailed evidence and strong, local partnerships. Further information on the fund can be found here
• Lloyd’s Consumer Digital Index 2018 reveals older and disabled people are the slowest to adopt basic digital skills and also have the lowest internet usage.