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King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, for the UK’s first state visit from Nigeria in 37 years. The pair will be guests at Windsor Castle on March 18 – 19.
State visits are a showcase of soft-power diplomacy, signalling the UK’s high regard for Nigeria, one of its key African partners with trade exceeding £8 billion in the year to October and a 2024 Trade and Investment Partnership aimed at expanding business opportunities.
Tinubu has previously met the King, including at a September 2024 reception at Buckingham Palace and at a COP28 meeting in Dubai. While the specifics of the March agenda remain undisclosed, such visits typically feature carriage processions and a state banquet, often alongside political meetings.
Nigeria’s last state visit to the UK was in 1989 by Gen Ibrahim Babangida.
The King has longstanding ties to Nigeria as a Commonwealth member, having visited the country four times as the Prince of Wales (1990, 1999, 2006, 2018). Camilla accompanied him on the 2018 trip.
In 2023, the King’s Trust International (formerly the Prince’s Trust) launched a project in Nigeria to tackle youth unemployment.
