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NBCC trade mission targets improved ties between Nigerian, Britain

By Melody Fidelis
06 June 2018   |   3:55 am
To expand bilateral ties between Nigeria and Britain, the President of the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce, Akin Olawore will be leading a delegation of Nigeria business owners and professionals on a trade mission to the United Kingdom. This is coming exactly six weeks after NBCC signed an agreement with the British Chamber of Commerce to…

MR. AKIN OLAWORE<br />President and Chairman of Council, NBCC

To expand bilateral ties between Nigeria and Britain, the President of the Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce, Akin Olawore will be leading a delegation of Nigeria business owners and professionals on a trade mission to the United Kingdom.

This is coming exactly six weeks after NBCC signed an agreement with the British Chamber of Commerce to become one of the 10 international affiliate chambers in the British Chamber of Commerce.

The multi-sector mission is set to provide a platform for Nigerian and British businesses to engage and collaborate which is scheduled to take place June 11, 2018 in London and Liverpool specifically.

Addressing pressmen during the chamber’s press conference held recently in Lagos, Olawore said the relationship gives members of NBCC access to companies spreads across 52 chambers in the UK as well as encourage, promote and facilitate trade and investment between the two nations.

He further stated that it also provides direct routes to the UK market, access to one of the largest cross-sectorial SME audiences in the UK, unrivalled insight into the UK’s business landscape and high profile local and national media engagement opportunities.

“There is also another opportunity both for the great British and Nigeria to improve in our trade relations and in the volume of trade, we all know that Nigeria is a traditional partner of the UK, we probably have the largest number of the populations of Nigerians in the UK that is after the US.

“ We have more than two million people in the UK, it is also a very large trade and market for Nigeria goods and services.

The British have also taken part of our culture; if you go to British stores you will see Ankara, these are part of our culture that they have taken on, if those things are from here or we have them here, why don’t we take advantage and export them?” he said

He revealed that the chamber is actively working with both the Nigeria high commission in London and the British high commission here in Nigeria, so that every part of the country benefit from whatever it is coming into Nigeria.

About the ease of doing business, Olawore said although it is actually working in Nigeria but there is need to put the necessary structures in place to facilitate.

He stated that there is also a working conference theme; “The ease of doing business in Nigeria- A sound check” at the Institute of Directors Pall Mall, London which is set to address this issue.

He also vowed that the chamber will tackle some of the barriers to export which according to him include standard of Nigeria products for export while lamenting that the chamber experience lot of complains during the period when there was a ban on 41 items that could be imported.

“So these are the things that we agree; we are making sure that some of the barriers that we have to export, which include standards of our products, we are dealing with them before we leave here, we have relationship with the standard accreditation agency, the standard organization and the British standard accreditation agencies so that they check and advise on standard even before we take them out” he said.

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