he UK has committed to deliver a new partnership with Investment Promotion Agencies in Nigeria and South Africa with funding worth £25 million. This is one of the many agreements that were established from the UK-Africa Investment Summit that took place in London.
The new partnership between the UK and African nations is based on trade, investment, shared values and mutual interest.
“The Summit demonstrated that the UK will go further to generate business to business links between the UK and Africa,” UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, said while hosting the UK-Africa Investment Summit on Monday.
The Summit agreed on new lasting partnerships between the UK and African countries to deliver more investment, jobs, and growth. More than 1000 people attended the summit, including Heads of State and Ministers from Africa; CEOs and senior representatives from African and British businesses, institutional investors, international organisations, financial institutions, and civil society.
Billions of pounds of new commercial deals were announced, highlighting the strength of the UK’s offer and existing relationship with Africa. The UK also announced new initiatives and funding which will: strengthen the joint trading relationship, support African countries in their ambition to transform their economies, launch a major new partnership with the city of London, turbo-charge infrastructure financing, and enable Africa’s clean energy potential.
Taken together, these will the UK realise its ambition to be the investment partner of choice for Africa, create hundreds of thousands of jobs, and ensure the mutual prosperity of all the countries.
On the sidelines of the Summit, Nigeria signed about four investment deals with some British companies; Tex ATC wants to install five airport control room towers worth £2 million in different parts of Nigeria and Trilliant with a deal worth £5 million will install Smart Metering for Abuja DisCo.
Also, Nigerian Low Energy Designs bagged an export contract to install street lighting in Oyo State while another investment involving Savannah to invest £315 million in the acquisition and investment of ingas assets in Nigeria was signed.
Commenting on the number of investors that approached Nigeria for enquiries at the summit Yewande Sadiku, Executive Secretary/CEO of Nigeria’s foremost investment promotion, said there was a lot.
“There are challenges in doing business in Nigeria, we know, but the opportunities exist because of the challenges,” Sadiku said.
