UK forges stronger investment future with Nigeria

The UK’s Department for International Trade, in collaboration with the City of London, recently hosted over 100 Nigerian businesses and potential UK investors at an investment showcase in London, highlighting opportunities in some of the many viable projects in the West African nation across the agriculture, energy, healthcare, infrastructure and ICT sectors.

The showcase, which comes ahead of the UK-Africa Investment Summit on 20th January 2020 in London, supports the UK’s clear vision of working together with African countries and forging new investments that will create jobs and boost mutual prosperity through strong and enduring partnerships.

Held at the historic Guildhall, the event outlined progressive investment prospects in the Nigerian market today to UK investors, and brought together leading figures in the public and private sectors, investment funds and financial institutions as the UK pursues its ambition of being the largest G7 investor in Africa by 2022.

Charles Bowman, former Lord Mayor of the City of London, in his opening remarks noted that the UK is already a significant direct investor in Nigeria and a strong relationship already exists with the country and the City of London.
“Nigeria is the second largest destination of UK investment in Africa, with £5.1bn of investment stock, and one-fifth of FTSE 100 companies having some form of presence in Nigeria,” Bowman said. “In addition, total trade in goods and services between the UK and Nigeria in 2018/19 was £5.1bn, an increase of 19.3 percent from the previous year, which illustrates the size and strength of trade and investment relationship between our two countries.”

Adeniyi Adebayo, Nigeria’s minister of industry, trade and investment, said as part of his keynote address that in order to realise its national economic objectives, “the Nigerian government has begun implementing new initiatives to aggressively improve the ease of doing business and is supporting investors through wholesale reforms, tailored investor incentives, bilateral investment agreement and a pipeline of continuous opportunities”.

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Harriet Thompson, UK deputy high commissioner to Nigeria, facilitated as Seso Global, Farmcrowdy, Nordica Fertility Centre, jetWest Airways, Channeldrill Resources Ltd, Century Energy Services and other Nigerian businesses presented their projects to investors from Credit Suisse, Infraco Africa, Standard Chartered, Black Rock, CDC, JP Morgan, Helios Investments, Wood Group, among others.

Other speakers included John Mahon, DIT’s director-general for exports, Yewande Sadiku, executive secretary/CEO, Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission, and Uche Orji, MD/CEO, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority.

HOPE MOSES-ASHIKE

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.