Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of NEPC Mr. Segun Awolowo
The Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) and the Commonwealth have agreed to collaborate in order to ascertain the challenges and opportunities of the Brexit on Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of NEPC Mr. Segun Awolowo, on Wednesday said that the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Patricia Scotland, has agreed on the collaboration.
Speaking on the impact of Brexit on Nigeria on ARISE TV in Abuja, Awolowo said since the Britain has triggered the Brexit process, it means both opportunities and challenges.
According to him, “There are two words to describe this which is opportunities and challenges. Of the two countries, Britain is a big economy in the world and Nigeria is the 24th largest economy in the world and with the colonial background, we have a strong relationship with the United Kingdom (UK).
“Nonetheless, trading with a big economic block in base is much better to do but even that has its challenges.
“For Nigeria, we tried negotiating a very complex free trade agreement that is the partnership agreement with the EU and I think two other nations in West Africa but have not signed yet. So of course it is easier negotiating with a single country so that is the immediate advantage in that and when it is a partner, historically because we have about two million Nigerians in Diaspora so it is a big market for export and services both in ICT and financial sector. So that is why I would say there are opportunities and challenges but even with that, we don’t know how this is going to extend to us,” he said.
While he added that whatever the outcome is, Nigeria is going to trade with Britain, he stressed that “It is just going to be on how we direct our trade. And I think Nigeria is very important we are their second largest trading partner in Africa and they are our third largest trading partner. So we are going to trade anyway.”
Speaking on the trade deficit with UK, Awolowo explained that Nigeria has been trading only one commodity over the years and that is oil.
“We are just in a position of a serious attempt to diversify the economy. Nigeria has released its Nigerian economic recovery and growth plan which is what we are going to use to get us out of this recession. And on the background of that is the strong emphasis on export because we believe once we are able to trade other things than oil then we would have a balance in our trade deficit all across the world.
So Britain is very key. They are our largest foreign direct investment partner and this the time we are urging them to invest in manufacturing and industry in Nigeria. So that market is very big and very key,” he said.