Against the backdrop of market uncertainties which overshadow its eventual departure from the European Union later this month, the United Kingdom is looking to beef up its otherwise ‘superficial footprint’ in French-speaking countries in Africa, its Foreign and Commonwealth Office suggests.
Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, and after years of sometimes acrimonious haggling over a ‘divorce’ mutually agreeable to both parties, the island nation looks set to leave the bloc on January 31.
Architects and apologists for this departure say it would restore Britain’s independence to negotiate its own trade deals with the rest of the world.
It’s negotiation with EU to exit the bloc it voted to join in 1976 after serious reluctance from EU heavyweight France, has been matched by an equally frenzied diplomatic offensive by London to woo countries outside Europe including Africa.
The UK-Africa trade and investment forum which opened in London on Monday is part of this grand scheme to let the world do more business with Britain.
This overture toward Africa took a more serious turn nine months ago when Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt with a post-Brexit scenario in mind directed this diplomatic offensive in Francophone Africa, visiting Senegal, the first by a senior British official to the West African country in 20 years.
Hunt and the Foreign Office are championing a new British diplomatic push across the continent, including French-speaking countries where Britain has traditionally played a smaller role but which in the advent of Brexit could be crucial in ensuring a more favourable post-Brexit climate for London.
During Hunt’s Senegal trip, he saw how the Royal Navy has been training Senegalese naval special forces in a bid to protect the West African nation’s new offshore oil and gas installations.
The UK has announced it will fund a new £4 million English language programme in French and Portuguese speaking countries across Africa.
While in Dakar, Jeremy Hunt launched the ‘English Connects’ programme at the Université Virtuelle du Sénégal.
Over the next two years, it will support the teaching and learning of English in sub-Saharan Africa countries where English is not widely spoken.
It has since made diplomatic forays into Mauritania, Niger and Chad, countries which in the past did not fall within Britain’s sphere of interest.
Hunt later proceeded to more familiar terrains in Africa namely Anglophone Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya to make the case for new UK partnerships across Africa as Britain’s negotiations to depart the European Union come t a close.
While in Ghana, Hunt welcomed new business deals with British companies after the Ghanaian government approved a £26 million agreement with British business Aqua Africa to reduce water poverty in the country.
WN/as/APA