According to British High Commissioner to Nigeria Richard Montgomery, trade between the UK and Nigeria has hit £7 billion.
Montgomery announced the signing of a new agreement on expanded trade and investment relationship between the two countries in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
Enhancing collaboration in important areas like education, legal services, financial services, creative industries, and agriculture is the goal of the pact.
Nigerian exports to the UK currently total about £3 billion, whereas UK exports to Nigeria total about £4 billion in goods and services.
According to the British envoy, the new deal is anticipated to boost commerce and deepen economic connections between the two countries.
“Trade between the two countries is fairly balanced, as the UK exports goods and services worth approximately £4 billion to Nigeria and Nigeria exports goods worth approximately £3 billion to the UK,” the speaker stated.
“If you compare the last year’s statistic to the penultimate, there was not much of an increase in trade volume. We need to do more. It represented a two percent gain.
Thus, trade has evolved over the past few years. Additionally, he clarified, “Our enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership aims to raise these numbers as well as boost trade and investment between both countries.”
He claims that Nigeria may profit from and utilise the Developing Countries commercial Scheme (DCTS), a new post-Brexit commercial deal that the UK has implemented.
Montgomery pointed out that DCTS, which eliminates tariffs on thousands of goods globally to promote free trade, is among the most generous programmes in the world.
The ambassador went on to say that Nigeria may export at least 3,000 tariff-free goods to the UK. Nigeria can export cocoa, cotton, or cashews from the middle belt in terms of agricultural products.
“There are many commercial farmers engaged in the production of vegetables that can be processed, as well as timber,” he said. Furthermore, we believe that Nigeria has a great deal of promise for commercial agriculture in the future.
“You have the people and the land.” Nigeria should benefit from the new trading plan. In terms of financial and legal services, we can offer more.
Montgomery disclosed that the financial services industry is getting new technologies that would significantly enhance the industry.
In addition, he expressed hope that Nigeria’s audacious changes will lead to more trade between the UK and the country.
Montgomery applauded the Nigerian government’s efforts to combat oil theft, the elimination of the “crippling fuel subsidy,” and the improvements made to foreign exchange.
He pointed out that the old foreign currency system had discouraged investors since it was hard to get money and move it across borders.
