By Melvin Onwubuke
United kingdom secretary of business and trade, Kemi Badenoch, on Tuesday signed a deal with Nigeria to enhance trade and investment between the two countries.
According to The Punch, the United kingdom secretary, Business and Trade,Kemi Badenoch and her counterpart, Doris uzoka-Anite, minister for trade and investment signed the historic deal.
This agreement is the first such deal with an African nation, and is aimed at boosting the UK and Nigeria trade relationship which is already worth 7b pounds as at sept 2023.
Mrs Badenoch said “this partnership with Nigeria will allow us to work together and seize the opportunities that lie ahead”.
She noted “uk businesses have already seen large success here and I look forward to seeing how we continue to grow this relationship”.
In the statement, Doris Nkiruka-Anita said “ the UK is one of our longstanding strategic partners with whom we share strong ties and it gladdens me that the relationship is set to deepen as we sign enhanced trade and investment partnership agreement.
“This partnership will see Nigeria and united kingdom relation move beyond one of shared history and strong ties to one of shared economic prosperity”.
She stated “from increasing market access and supporting our vibrant businesses, to creating more jobs and accelerate greater investment in sectors mutual benefits.”
Mrs Badenoch, will also witness the signing of a milestone energy agreement between uk based KONEXA, an energy firm and Nigeria Power Generation North South Power (NSP).
The CEO of KONEXA in a statement said “this is a very important milestone for KONEXA, NSP, Nigerian Breweries and all of our investment partners”.
He added “ over the last few years, KONEXA has been working on a disruptive model that matches consumer energy demand with renewable energy supply.
“we are looking forward to investing more than 120m pounds in renewable energy generation, transmission, distribution and battery storage solutions to help our customers away from the use of fossil fuel.”