Paul Arkwright, British High Commissioner to Nigeria, on Thursday urged Nigerians to utilise opportunities provided by the exit of Britain from the European Union, or Brexit for the development of the Nigerian economy.
Arkwright who made the call in Abuja at a roundtable on “Global Britain, Supporting Prosperity in Nigeria,” said that UK believed in Nigeria’s potentials, and that “Brexit is a period of uncertainty but mostly a period of opportunities.”
He assured that the UK, the British government and the British High Commission will stand with Nigeria shoulder to shoulder, stating further that his nation was looking at a number of areas to support Nigeria.
“We are very pleased with the government policy on business, the power sector reform and others, and I do think we can work together in many areas, even as we have been talking with the government on how to improve the business environment,” said Arkwright.
He however expressed concern on the bureaucracy and other challenges always encountered by British or other foreign companies in their quest to invest in Nigeria towards creating jobs and growing the economy.
“It is unbelievably bad; I believed there is need to do something about that,” the UK envoy lamented.
According to him, “it is not UK investors alone, even Nigerian companies to export products will be filling different forms, going through about 20 processes and about 15 agencies within Nigeria.”
Arkwright insisted that no country in the world has ever come out of poverty stage or moving out of developing stage without competitive exports, and that Nigeria must ensure its exports become competitive in order to start moving forward.
He said that the resourceful, the resilience and entrepreneurship spirit of average Nigerian remained admirable.
According to him, the UK will look at practical ways to engage in improving business environment that will impact positively on grassroots.
“The supporting prosperity team will be looking at practical ways where we will of course help the government in economic recovery and, collectively, we can work together to take that forward,” Arkwright assured.
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