UK-Nigeria Trade & Investment Partnership: NEPZA in the mix

By Martins Odeh

The Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, along with several Chief Executives of agencies under her oversight, including Dr. Olufemi Ogunyemi of the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), strategically utilised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s visit to the United Kingdom to promote flexible trade and investment facilitation strategies.

It has been widely recognised that the president’s visit ended a more than thirty-year period during which Nigerian leaders avoided effective trade and investment diplomacy with the United Kingdom, to the mutual benefit of both countries. A question like: “Who did this to us” could fill these decades of silence.

Nonetheless, the president’s masterful diplomacy has been successfully executed, with the ministerial leadership highlighting its success.

The UK Minister for Trade, Sir Chris Bryant MP, and Nigeria’s Minister for Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole MFR, co-hosted the first ministerial meeting of the UK-Nigeria Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP). They brought together senior policymakers, technical experts, and private sector representatives to review progress since the UK-Nigeria ETIP was launched in February 2024.

The Ministers reaffirmed the strategic importance of the ETIP as the main platform for strengthening trade and investment ties between the United Kingdom and Nigeria. 

Both sides recognised the need for ongoing high-level dialogue and close technical cooperation to deliver commercially meaningful results that support sustainable, inclusive, and innovative economic growth in both countries.

The meeting offered a chance to review recent bilateral investment developments and highlighted increasing interest among UK and Nigerian companies in expanding commercial activities across key sectors.

A spotlight was also cast on barriers impacting firms, including a UK agrifood processor exploring expansion in Nigeria. It was agreed that regulatory clarity should be improved, investor support mechanisms strengthened, and efforts to advance investment facilitation tools. 

Both parties acknowledged ongoing collaboration on Nigeria’s Investment Portal goals and the potential for a future investment memorandum of understanding (MOU).

Interestingly, the platform emphasised the need for greater regulatory cooperation to enable growth within the services trade ecosystem. 

They welcomed the discussions on Audit Regulatory Equivalence and the Mutual Recognition of Statutory Audit Qualifications and highlighted opportunities for the new UK-Nigeria Growth Programme to support capacity building in innovation, digital regulation, intellectual property protection, and regulatory coherence, thereby enhancing competitiveness and promoting export diversification across priority sectors.

Nigeria provided an update on its new Intellectual Property Policy and outlined implementation plans to enhance investor confidence and safeguard creative-sector practitioners.

Evidently, Dr. Ogunyemi’s participation in these high-level meetings served as an opportunity for NEPZA to align and realign with the new trade facilitation policy of the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.

Earlier this year, Dr Ogunyemi had stretched the limit to break long years of non-exploitation of available trade and investment opportunities with the embassies of the European Union in Abuja.

This one attempt has increased interest among EU members in doing business in the Free Trade Zones.

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