King Charles III will host Nigerian President Bola Tinubu during a state visit to the United Kingdom on 18–19 March, Buckingham Palace announced on Saturday.
President Tinubu and his wife, Olumeri Tinubu, will be received at Windsor Castle by Charles and Queen Camilla, the palace said.
London and Abuja concluded a strategic partnership in November 2024 to strengthen cooperation on economic, immigration, and security matters.
Nigeria has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency in the northeast and heavily armed criminal gangs in the northwest and central regions for several years. On Friday, the Nigerian Ministry of Defence said the two countries planned to deepen defence cooperation following a week in which over 160 people were killed in central Kwara State, an attack President Tinubu attributed to jihadists.
The UK and Nigeria also signed an economic cooperation agreement in early 2024 under the previous Conservative government. Nigeria, a former British colony and Commonwealth member, was the first African country visited by the British Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, shortly after the Labour government came to power in July 2024.
Nigeria, with a population of 230 million, is Africa’s most populous country and one of its largest economies, and is a major recipient of UK development aid. It is also home to a large Nigerian diaspora.
Bilateral trade reached £8.1 billion ($11 billion) in the year to September 2025, up 11.4% year-on-year, according to the UK Department for Business. British exports to Nigeria rose 14.2% to £5.7 billion.
The visit will mark the first formal state visit by a Nigerian president to Britain in 37 years, although President Tinubu met King Charles in September 2024. Charles visited Nigeria four times as Prince of Wales before the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
Separately, on Friday, a Nigerian court ordered the British government to pay £420 million to the families of miners killed in 1949 during a protest over working conditions and unpaid wages.
