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Nigerian-British Bilateral Relationship Post COVID-19 Remains Strong

Jun 02, 2020   •   by   •   Source: Proshare   •   eye-icon 1965 views

Monday,June 01, 2020 / 12:50 PM / NBCC

 

The Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) on Tuesday, 26thMay 2020, hosted a Bilateral Trade Webinar themed "Nigerian-BritishBilateral Relationship Post COVID-19". Panellists at theWebinar were the British Deputy High Commissioner, Ms Harriet Thompson, andPrince Bimbo Olashore, Vice-President of the NBCC. The session was moderated byMrs Bola Adesola, Senior Vice- Chairman, Africa, Standard Chartered Bank.


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Ms Thompson reiterated that the focusof British Government's work in Nigeria was around supporting economicdevelopment & growing the private sector, which has become even morerelevant now to ameliorate the impact of Covid-19. According to the Deputy HighCommissioner, despite the steady rise of Nigeria in the World Bank's Ease ofDoing Business Index, there were still some nagging issues like Moving Goodsinto & from Ports,& within the country, Access to foreign exchange,Bureaucracy & Land Registration. She stated that the British Government waspleased to see the commitment of the Federal Government of Nigeria set out inthe letter of intent to the IMF around the removal of fuel subsidy, tacklingthe forex regime and reforming the power sector.

She went further to talk about the steps Nigeria has taken totackle the spread of the coronavirus which have come at a heavy economic cost,some of which have disrupted the supply chains. Allowing the movement of goodswithin the country would help businesses and the most vulnerable mitigate theimpact of the virus. In addition, a great opportunity exists to implementreforms such as the Single Window which the Federal Government has committed to.The United Kingdom is also still highly active in supporting these reforms by providingtechnical assistance to organizations such as PEBEC and NIPC, as well as otherprograms that are supporting infrastructure, agriculture, market skills, andthe technology sector.

 

Prince Bimbo Olashore, in addressing the effect of the pandemicon the Nigerian Capital Market, stated that the outlook is extremely positiveas "the stock market is dominated by companies in infrastructure,telecommunications and banking. The doomsday conspiracy seems to be recedingwhich means we are not expecting much damage...Nigeria's main issue has alwaysbeen diversification. Nigeria is not an oil and gas economy because this sectorbarely contributes up to 12% to the GDP and what we have to do is to stimulateall the other areas with an increased focus on Agriculture, IT and otheremerging sectors".

 

Speaking on the commitments made at the UK-Africa InvestmentSummit held in January, Ms. Thompson noted that many of the initiatives had nottaken off because of the pandemic. There had however been slow but steadyprogress on the collaborations including the 37 Million Pounds Growth GatewayProgramme of business support services for Trade and Investment across Africa.The British Government is supporting innovation and local production of PPEs, facilitatingan understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on the technology sector and seekingways to support the growth of digital healthcare in Nigeria.

 

Similarly,the UK Export Finance (UKEF) provides funding for export or import UK products.However, despite a recently expanded appetite for risk finance in Nigeria, thecurrent portfolio is only about 3% of total UKEF exposure and UKEF would liketo significantly increase the portfolio. This will benefit SMEs aiming toexpand and diversify their operations by exporting.


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 Proshare Nigeria Pvt. Ltd.


 Proshare Nigeria Pvt. Ltd. 

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