Envoy: Nigeria-UK trade relations hit £7bn

The British High Commissioner in Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery, says trade relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK) currently stand at about £7 billion.

Montgomery said Nigeria and the UK signed a new agreement on enhanced trade and investment partnership and agreed to work on a range of sectors.

He identified the sectors as agriculture, the creative industry, legal, financial services, and education, saying the trade between the UK and Nigeria is balanced.

Montgomery said this in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Sunday, May 5, 2024.

The British envoy said: “Trading by both countries is relatively balanced because the UK exports about £4 billion worth of goods and services to Nigeria while Nigeria exports to the UK about £3 billion worth of goods.

“We need to do more because if you look at last year’s figure compared to the penultimate, there was not much of an increase in trade volume.

“It was an increase of about two per cent. So trade in the last few years has changed.

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“And the aim of our enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership is to boost trade and investment between both countries and also to raise these numbers.

“Nigeria can benefit and take advantage of a new post-Brexit trading agreement that the UK has put in place that is called the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS).

“This scheme called the DCTS is one of the most generous schemes in the world in the sense that it removes tariffs on thousands of products from across the world to make free trade easier.”

Montgomery noted that having visited many parts of Nigeria, the UK realised that Nigeria had at least 3,000, tariff-free products that it could export to the UK.

According to him, the enhanced trade investment partnership signed between the two countries in February is aimed at attracting more investment to the agricultural sector.

He said Nigeria could boost trade with the UK by exporting more of its agricultural products.

The envoy added: “In agricultural exports, Nigeria can export cashew, cotton, or cocoa from the middle belt.

“There are lots of commercial farmers involved in vegetables, which can be processed, and there is also timber.

“And we think that there’s a big potential for commercial agriculture in the future in Nigeria. You have the land you have the people.

“The new trading scheme should be an opportunity for Nigeria. We can do more in financial and legal services.”

The Star