Nigerian staff members and hundreds of others worldwide are very likely to lose their job as Crown Agents, one of the United Kingdom’s most established development contractors, faces collapse.

This was made known by Devex, a global development platform.

Devex further revealed that Crown Agents' imminent shutdown is driven by severe financial drought that has seen staff’s pay for July slashed by half.

About 350 staff in 20 countries across the world could be affected.

In Nigeria, Crown Agents has over 200 off-grid solar systems installed for schools and healthcare centres in Lagos and Kaduna states, helping treat tropical diseases for over 14 million people.

A statement by Nkiru Anonyuo, country director for Nigeria read: “We have been working with partners in Nigeria for over 100 years and continue to work with the government of Nigeria at both the federal and state levels.

"We provide market-leading training and capacity building services for both the private and public sector."

Also, a lot of big development firms have opened London offices in recent years, increasing competition in the industry.

“The directors have been working as hard as they can over the last few months to attract new investment and funding for the business but unfortunately, while there was much support for the work we do, it recently became clear that actual commitments to provide the cash required going forward were not forthcoming,” the company said in a statement.