Richard Montgomery, the British High Commissioner in Nigeria, said on Sunday that trade relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom (UK) currently amount to about £7 billion.

Mr Montgomery told journalists in Abuja that Nigeria and the UK signed a new agreement on enhanced trade and investment partnership and agreed to work on a range of sectors, such as agriculture, the creative industry, legal, financial services, and education.

Mr Montgomery stated that trade between the UK and Nigeria is balanced.

“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 is 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, 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,” he said.

The envoy said that after visiting 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 will attract more investment to the agricultural sector.

He said Nigeria could boost trade with the UK by exporting more agricultural products. He added that Nigeria has a huge creative industry which the UK recognises and is interested in.

“London is a good place for partnerships in the creative industry, so we are hoping to promote those areas through partnerships,” he said.

He said two challenges of doing business in the UK that foreigners needed to take cognisance of were the lack of knowledge about how to do business and the standards (non-tariff barriers to trade).

He stated that a facility called the Growth Gateway, run by the Department of Business and Trade provides advice for anyone intending to export to the UK.

“When you go onto the internet and search for UK Department for Business and Trade, you will access the growth gateway page where you will get information on trade, depending on what sector you are in. There’s even a page for Nigeria,” the envoy said.

Mr Montgomery added that he was optimistic that the UK would do more trade in Nigeria because of the bold reforms by the Nigerian government.

He applauded the removal of the “crippling fuel subsidy”, tackling oil theft, getting oil revenues that manage the budget better, and also the foreign exchange reforms.

He said those were critical in encouraging UK investors and banks to return to the Nigerian market and do more trade.

(NAN)