Nigeria one of biggest beneficiaries of Brexit — UK envoy
By Mark Longyen
British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, has said that Nigeria is one of the countries that benefited the most from Britain’s exit from the European Union (EU), better known as Brexit.
The High Commissioner stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that UK-Nigeria trade and investment relationships are currently being built on a post-Brexit set of rules that bolster trade ties with the potential for mutual economic benefits.
Montgomery said Brexit had allowed more Nigerians to come and live, work, and study in the UK, culminating in the number of diaspora Nigerians in the UK increasing from 300,000 in 2021 to 550,000 in 2025.
“I’d say in the relations to the Nigeria-UK relationship, Nigeria has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit in terms of our visa regime, which has allowed more Nigerians to come and live and work and study in the UK.
“In 2021, we had an estimate that there were 300,000 people of Nigerian descent or nationality in the UK, a diaspora of 300,000, and now that has risen to 550,000.
“The diaspora from Nigeria has increased partly because of the post-Brexit immigration regime. So Nigeria has been a big beneficiary of Brexit,” he said.
The British envoy explained that following Britain’s exit from Europe, the UK has had realignment in its economic relationships and freedom to do trade deals with wider countries outside the EU.
“So, Brexit is something that has caused a realignment in a lot of our economic relationships and some of those may look positive and some of them may look negative.
“I think that overall, UK has a lot more, if you like, independence and freedom to do trade deals with wider countries outside EU.
“At the moment I’d say the most obvious example is that our relationship with the U.S. is particularly constructive and is leading to these massive U.S. investments in the UK because of the economic freedoms enabled by Brexit,” he said. (NAN)
(Edited by Emmanuel Yashim)
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