Nigeria, other African countries to face major setback as UK slashes foreign aid

The United Kingdom has unveiled a sweeping 40% cut to its foreign aid budget—one that will fall heavily on Africa.

Funding for children’s education and women’s health will be among the biggest casualties.

New figures reveal deep reductions across key sectors. Support for anti-corruption efforts, media freedom, trade, and economic security are being scaled back.

Several climate-related projects have also been scrapped entirely.

According to the UK government, this year’s education budget cuts will severely affect Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe.

Overall, Africa and the Middle East are the regions most impacted by the aid reductions.

The UK says the cuts are tied to a broader plan to increase defence spending to 2.5% of gross domestic product, following pressure from the United States.

Earlier, Foreign Secretary David Cameron confirmed that the aid budget would drop from 0.5% to 0.3% of national income.

While bilateral aid is shrinking, contributions to international institutions like the World Bank and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance will continue—for now.

However, the Foreign Office warned that underperforming multilateral organizations could face future cuts.

It also acknowledged that funding to certain unnamed countries would be reduced.

One exception is the UK’s commitment of £1.98 billion over three years to the International Development Association (IDA)—the World Bank’s fund for low-income countries.

This pullback comes at a challenging moment globally.

“The UK is pulling back at a time when US support for global gender programming has already been gutted,” the report noted.

(BUSINESS INSIDER)

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