Basing on the thriving service and agric sectors of the economy, the Commonwealth Secretariat has predicted that the existing trade between Nigeria and United Kingdom is likely to increase from $3.7 billion to $4.5 billion.
This is even as the British Government is considering legal steps to exit from the European Union.
The Commonwealth is hinging it’s optimism on Nigeria’s thriving service industry and the growing contribution of the agricultural sector to the export markets.
Opeyemi Abebe, Trade Adviser to the Common wealth Secretariat while speaking on the topic: Brexit ,Opportunities and Challenges said the Nigerian government must engage the British government headlong to ensure it harvests wider opportunities that could come from the Brexit and other bilateral trade relations.
The Event which was a joint organised forum between the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Nigeria Export Promotion Council,(NEPC),in Abuja on Thursday had in attendance key stakeholders from the organised Private sector.
According to the Commonwealth Representative,”It is good that the discussions is coming now that the British government has trigger article 50 preparatory of their exit. India is already advancing talks with the British government on possible areas of widening trade relations.The Nigeria government must engage deeply with the British government to harvest opportunities of the Brexit and asdjust properly to the challenges”
Also, the Commonwealth Trade Adviser noted that with the proposed Trade and Investment Cooperation Agreement,(TICA) between both countries,the UK’s Foreign Director Investment (FDI),could increase to 4 and half billion pounds from 1 billion pounds by the year 2030 if both countries implement programmes to improve trade competitiveness and ease of doing business between them.
“NIgeria’s exports of services to the United Kingdom may be further strengthened with the new trade and Investment arrangements given that a number of professional services sectors are patterned after the UK as enough similarities between the UK and Nigeria to propose the signing of Mutual recognition agreements for identifies professional serives sector,” Opeyemi said.
Olusegun Awolowo,the Executive Director of Nigeria Export Promotion Council,NEPC said that Nigeria needs to maintain a strong economic relationship with Britain in alignment of its membership of the commonwealth.
Awolowo informed the programme which was jointly organised by the NEPC and the Commonwealth Secretariat, that the essence of the programme was to enable participants have a full understanding on the implications of Brexit on our socio-economic and political environment.
“We are glad that the commonwealth has come to support us in this to help us prepare adequately for trade engagements. It is significant for us to be able to mitigate against the challenges that follows the Brexit as well as harvest the opportunities,” he said.
