Britain’s May takes trade-touting tour to Nigeria
ABUJA: Britain’s Theresa May landed in Nigeria’s capital yesterday on the second leg of her maiden Africa tour aimed at drumming up post-Brexit trade deals outside the European Union.
The prime minister had kicked off her three-nation visit in Cape Town on Tuesday where she pledged to prioritise investment in Africa – although it was her diffident dance moves rather than her diplomacy that captured the headlines.
The tour, which will also take her to Kenya, is part of a campaign to promote Britain’s global ambitions after Brexit.
With just seven months until Britain formally leaves the EU, May is under pressure back home from those sceptical of her ability to forge post-Brexit trade deals, with British officials eyeing a doubling of trade with Nigeria over the next decade or so.
“Bilateral trade between Britain and Nigeria was up to £ 4.2 billion ( US$ 5.42 billion, 4.64 billion euros), in 2017 and we expect to more than double this figure by 2030,” Laure Beaufils, Britain’s deputy high commissioner to Nigeria, told a press conference ahead of May’s arrival in Abuja.
China is currently Nigeria’s biggest trading partner with Abuja importing some US$ 7 billion in goods from Beijing.
May will hold talks with President Muhammadu Buhari before heading to Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital, where she will hold talks on efforts to stem the migrant flow to Europe and meet victims of modern slavery.
The British premier will then head on to Kenya for the last leg of her three- day trip.
— AFP