The report that trade relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom have reached £7bn, according to the British High Commissioner to Nigeria Richard Montgomery is ne of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Punch reports that the Trade relations between Nigeria and the United Kingdom have reached £7bn, British High Commissioner to Nigeria Richard Montgomery said on Sunday.
Montgomery announced in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the two nations have signed a new agreement on enhanced trade and investment partnership.
The agreement aims to boost cooperation in key sectors such as agriculture, creative industries, legal services, financial services, and education.
The UK currently exports around £4bn worth of goods and services to Nigeria, while Nigeria’s exports to the UK stand at approximately £3bn.
The British envoy said the new agreement is expected to increase trade volumes and strengthen economic ties between the two nations.
“Trading by both countries is relatively balanced because the UK exports about £4bn worth of goods and services to Nigeria while Nigeria exports to the UK about £3bn worth of goods,” he said.
“We need to do more because if you look at last year’s figure compared to the penultimate, there was not much of an increase in trade volume. It was an increase of about two per cent.
“So trade in the last few years has changed. And the aim of our enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership is to boost trade and investment between both countries and also to raise these numbers,” he explained.
The newspaper says that barely 48 hours after Multichoice alerted subscribers to a three-day technical downtime, telecommunication companies have expressed concern over possible connectivity disruptions as construction advances on the 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway.
While the DStv and GOtv owner acknowledged the anticipated impact of the ongoing Lagos-Calabar construction project on their uplink facilities, telcos on Sunday expressed broader concerns emphasising the vital role of telecommunication service and the effect of possible anticipated technical disruption.
The Lagos-Calabar coastal highway corridor serves as a crucial landing point for multiple submarine cables connecting Nigeria to Europe
The cables, including the West Africa Cable System (WACS), MainOne, Glo1, ACE, and NCSCS, are vital for international communications and data transmission in the country.
The Federal Executive Council approved Phase One of the ambitious 700-km Lagos-Calabar coastal highway project in February, entrusting the task to Hitech Construction Company Limited.
The highway project was designed to connect Lagos to Cross River, passing through the coastal states of Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Edo Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom, before culminating in Cross River.
Meanwhile, the demolition of numerous properties and recreational centres in Lagos has been carried out to expedite the construction of the highway.
The Vanguard newspaper reports that many indigenous companies and International Oil Companies (IOCs) have indicated interest in bidding for the 12 onshore and seven deep offshore blocks put forward for sale by the Federal Government.
Vanguard gathered yesterday that the companies have been reviewing the requirements, including technical competence and financial capacity, required by the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, to qualify for the bid.
NUPRC regulates activities in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria
Members of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, an association of Nigerian Indigenous Technical Oilfield Service Companies in the upstream and downstream sectors have put forward their interest, according to the chairman of the group, Engr. Wole Ogunsanya.
“We are trying to study the available fields to determine if they are viable in scale for our members,” Ogunsanya said yesterday.
The 12 Petroleum Prospecting Leases, PPLs include 300, 301, 3008, 3009, 2000, 2001, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271 and Petroleum Mining Lease, PML 51, while the Deep Offshore Blocks, PPLs are 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305 and 306.
Top company officials, who pleaded anonymity because they were not granted permission to speak, said in different conversations with Vanguard that they have started working with their local and international consultants toward bidding for the oil blocks.
They pleaded that their company’s names should not be made public to avoid jeopardising their chances in the bid.
The CEO of Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe, who confirmed the interest of potential bidders to Vanguard yesterday, said the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference, OTC 2024 has presented a great opportunity to also woo investors for the oil blocks.
The newspaper says that some northern activists and New Nigeria Peoples Party Party (NNPP) at the weekend cautioned the Federal Government against signing any military pact with the US and France to pave way for relocation of their military bases to the country.
The northern leaders have actually written President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the National Assembly, NASS, on why the federal government should not allow the relocation of the military from the Sahel to Nigeria.
Those who signed the letter include Abubakar Siddique Mohammed of the Centre for Democratic Development, Research and Training, CEDDERT, Zaria; Kabiru Sulaiman Chafe of Arewa Research and Development Project, ARDP, Kaduna; Attahiru Muhammadu Jega of Bayero University, Kano; and Jibrin Ibrahim of Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, Abuja.
Others are Auwal Musa Rafsanjani of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Abuja; and Y. Z. Ya’u of the Centre for Information Technology and Development, CITAD.
They said it was common knowledge that the American and French governments had been desperately lobbying the governments of Nigeria, Benin, Togo, and Ghana to agree to sign new defense pacts that would enable them redeploy their soldiers expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
“Some of the troops have been redeployed to Chad but France and United States prefer countries of the Gulf of Guinea that are more strategically located to serve their interests in the central zone of the Sahel.
”Of the countries in the Gulf of Guinea, Nigeria turns out to be the most strategically located. There are indications that the Nigerian government may be favourably disposed to the proposed defense pact.
”However, there is widespread apprehension that signing of the pact by Nigeria would have wide ranging implications for defense and internal security of the country,” they warned.
GIK/APA
Nigeria: Press spotlights £7bn recorded in Nigeria-UK trade relations
