Join us virtually as we welcome Harriet Thompson, British High Commissioner to the Republic of Ghana and Richard Montgomery CMG, British High Commissioner to Nigeria on Tuesday 20th June from 12:00-13:00 BST.
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Join us virtually as we welcome Harriet Thompson, British High Commissioner to the Republic of Ghana and Richard Montgomery CMG, British High Commissioner to Nigeria on Tuesday 20th June from 12:00-13:00 BST.
Ghana
In the past two decades, Ghana has taken major strides towards democracy under a multi-party system, with its independent judiciary winning public trust. Ghana consistently ranks in the top three African countries for freedom of speech and press.
GDP growth is estimated to have slowed to 3.2% in 2022, down from 5.4% in 2021. Growth is expected to slow further to 1.6 % in 2023 and remain muted in 2024, before returning toward its potential . The slowdown affected mostly the non-extractive sectors, as the recovery in gold exports supported extractives growth. The agriculture and services sectors experienced slower growth in 2022 than the year before. High inflation and interest rates depressed private consumption and investment. Government demand was weakened by lack of access to capital markets and high debt service obligations.
Currency depreciation, increased price of electricity and water, and an increase in the VAT have driven up the cost of living, particularly for food. This places considerable strain on household budgets, especially for those who devote more than half of their budget to food. Rural farmers were also affected by increases in the prices of fertilizer and other inputs.
Harriet Thompson is the British High Commissioner for Ghana, arriving in June 2021 and is also the non-resident Ambassador Designate to Burkina Faso, Benin and Togo.
Before her arrival in Ghana, Ms Thompson was the British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Nigeria where she led a large and growing mission covering the full spectrum of the UK’s work in the country, with a particular focus on commercial and economic development. She arrived in Lagos in July 2019 after nearly 3 years as British Deputy High Commissioner to Nigeria in Abuja.
Previously Ms Thompson enjoyed a varied career working across the British Government, leading policy and programmes across trade, energy, climate change and other areas.
Nigeria
Nigeria is a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse federation of 36 autonomous states and the Federal Capital Territory. The political landscape is partly dominated by the ruling All Progressives Congress party (APC) which controls the executive arm of government and holds majority seats at both the Senate and House of Representatives in parliament, and majority of the States.
The economy is projected to grow by an average of 2.9% per year between 2023 and 2025, only slightly above the estimated population growth rate of 2.4%. Growth will likely be driven by services, trade, and manufacturing. Downside risks to this growth outlook have intensified, with most of the risks coming from domestic policies, continued low (albeit recently rising) oil production, and scarcity of both foreign exchange and local currency.
High oil prices since 2021 have not boosted the performance of the Nigerian economy as has been the case in the past. Rather, macroeconomic stability weakened, amidst declining oil production, a costly petrol subsidy which is consuming a large share of gross oil revenues, exchange rate distortions, monetization of the fiscal deficit, and high inflation.
Richard Montgomery was appointed British High Commissioner to Nigeria in April 2023.
Prior to that, he was the UK Executive Director at the World Bank Group Boards from 2018 to 2022. His role included ensuring that the improvements agreed by shareholders in 2018 were implemented. Richard worked on the global COVID response, the UK’s G7 and COP26 presidencies, and the World Bank Group’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its global impact.
He was previously a Director at the Department for International Development (DFID), overseeing Asia, Caribbean and Overseas Territories Division. This included country programmes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, and 10 other overseas offices and UK-based departments.
Before that, Richard served as Head of Office in Pakistan (2013 to 2015) and Nigeria (2009 to 2013), and Head of Corporate Human Resources (2006 to 2009). He has also worked in DFID’s top management group and DFID offices in Zambia, Bangladesh and India.
