Brexit poses danger to Nigeria’s economy – Industrialists

The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has said that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) will have negative results on Nigeria’s economy.

Analysing the effect of Britain’s exit from the EU (Brexit) in Abuja, the President of ACCI, Mr Tony Ejinkeoye, said that the bilateral trade between Nigeria and the UK, currently valued at 6 billion pounds and projected to reach about 20 billion pounds by 2020, may be disrupted as trade agreements contracted under the umbrella of the EU have to be renegotiated.

“Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the UK was Nigeria’s largest source of foreign investment in 2015. A decelerating British economy could impact a drop in investment, trade, and also remittances from the Nigerian diaspora who sent home over 20 billion dollars in 2015,” he said.

Ejinkeonye said that Brexit will no doubt create anxiety for Nigeria’s policy makers due to slide in global markets at this time that Nigeria is trying to revive the economy which is at the edge of a recession and only recently liberalized her foreign exchange market.

He said before now, the foremost assessment among foreign policy analysts around the world is that the exit would reduce rather than enhance the UK’s standing and influence.

“Now that the referendum has taken place, the first practical impact of Brexit is that the pound and Euro is already falling against the dollar on the foreign exchange markets, which is encouraging for the Naira,” he said.

He said the markets anticipate that Brexit may be bad for the economy and investors are likely to move their money out of the UK and Nigeria may benefit.

“In addition, reduced trade and investment from Britain may not necessarily be taken up by the rest of the EU,” he said.

He said that a shrinking UK economy would definitely have a significant impact on aid programmes to Nigeria, especially DFID programmes, which have been a burning political issue in the UK.