By Victor Gbonegun, with Agency Reports The British Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson has confirmed the appointment of Helen Grant MP...
By Victor Gbonegun,
with Agency Reports
The British Prime Minister, Mr Boris Johnson has confirmed
the appointment of Helen Grant MP, a British-Nigerian, as the new trade envoy
to Nigeria.
Grant’s role will be to provide support to the UK
Government’s trade and investment priorities in Nigeria through high-level
engagement with Nigerian Ministers by leading trade delegations, engaging key
businesses in the market and promoting bilateral trade.
Her duties will also include promoting trade for UK
businesses in selected high-growth and developing markets around the world, and
support the activities of the UK’s Department of international trade.
Born in London to a British mother and a Nigerian father,
Grant is married with two sons. She is a graduate of law from the University of
Hull, and set up her own legal practice, specialising in family breakdown and
domestic violence before becoming the first female Anglo-African Conservative
Member of Parliament, when she was elected MP for Maidstone and The Weald in
2010, winning three consecutive elections since then.
Grant’s impressive political career includes serving as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice and for Women and Equalities,
under former Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition Government, and later,
Minister of State for Sport and Tourism.
She also served as Conservative Party Vice Chairman for
Communities, focusing on issues concerning diversity, inclusion, equality, social
cohesion, racism and discrimination under former Prime Minister Theresa May’s
government.
Speaking on her appointment as the UK Prime Minister’s Trade
Envoy to Nigeria, Grant said, “I am absolutely delighted with my appointment.
Both countries are close to my heart, my father being Nigerian and my mother
English. Now, I have an opportunity to employ my rich dual heritage to help
magnify an already strong UK–Nigerian relationship for our mutual prosperity.”
She added: “As the largest and fastest growing economy on
the African continent, the potential for trade and investment with Nigeria is
stunning. I will do my utmost to help develop that as part of our nation’s
collective drive towards an outward looking global Britain.
“As a champion of inclusivity and human rights, in and
outside of politics, Grant has also lent her voice to bringing businesses
together with people of diverse and under-represented backgrounds as former
Chair of the Government’s Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network, and as a
former Trustee of both the Social Mobility Foundation and the Human Trafficking
Foundation.”
Helen Grant is the second Trade Envoy since the programme
launched in 2012, succeeding John Howell MP.
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