The Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce, (NBCC) in partnership with British Airways, Institute of Directors (IoD) and the Department of Internal Trade, has ended a five-day trade mission to the United kingdom.
The mission, which kicked off from June 24 to 28, 2024, in London, focused, among things on attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Nigeria and boosting partnerships and bilateral ties between the UK and Nigeria.
The mission with the theme: ‘Unveiling untapped trade opportunities, attracted speakers from various sectors of the economy.
Speaking on the sideline of the event, President and Chairman of Council of NBCC, Ray Atelly said, the trade mission threw its weight behind government’s initiative of Recapitalisation of Nigerian Banks, adding that the mission to the UK was to promote the programe to investors and the international community.
According to him, the multiplier effects of recapitalisation cannot be overemphasized as it stands to benefit the business community and government.
“It is very important that we have this trade mission support a very important initiative of government and that is the recapitalisation of Nigerian banks. We know that the capacity of Nigerian banks today to support big thicket projects is limited and so, when the Central Bank of Nigeria came up with the recapitalisation program, we jumped on board and decided to support the CBN.
“What we are looking forward to is to promote this program to the investment public in the UK and the international community so that they can equally come and be part of it. If we want to strengthen our banks, if you look at the multiplier effects if the banks have more capital, they will be able to support more projects and the more projects come on stream the more employment would be created and the more taxes for government, it would be a happier environment for everyone”, Atelly said.
Atelly, who disclosed that 60 percent of top 100 companies in Nigeria are members of the Chambers, said it has continue utulise the extensive reach to dialogue with governments to understand the views of the private sector and the international community to help them during policy implementation.
He concluded that the Chambers continue to create atmosphere for the two nations to nurture the relationship they’ve had over the years, adding that for instance, Nigerian benefits when projects are implemented qualitatively by British companies while the British citizens also benefit from revenue that comes from such projects.
