The Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry has said that Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) would have negative consequences on the economy of Nigeria.
The Chamber made its position known in a statement by its President, Tony Ejikeoyen, on Sunday in Abuja.
According to the Chamber, “Now that the referendum has taken place, the first practical impact of Brexit is that the pound and Euro is already falling against the dollar on the foreign exchange markets, which is encouraging for the Naira.”
“The markets anticipate that Brexit may be bad for the economy, and so investors are likely to move their money out of the UK.”
The Chamber said that Brexit will no doubt create anxiety for Nigeria’s policy makers due to slide in global markets at this time that Nigeria was trying to revive the economy which is at the edge of a recession.
The president said that bilateral trade between Nigeria and the UK, currently valued at six billion pounds and projected to reach about 20 billion pounds by 2020 would be affected.
It said that this might be disrupted as trade agreements contracted under the umbrella of the EU had to be renegotiated.
“Besides, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that the UK was Nigeria’s largest source of foreign investment in 2015, he said.
“Thus, a decelerating British economy could impact a drop in investment, trade, and also remittances from the Nigerian Diaspora who sent home over 20 billion dollars in 2015.
“In addition, reduced trade and investment from Britain may not necessarily be taken up by the rest of the EU,” he said.
The body equally revealed that a shrinking UK economy would definitely have a significant impact on aid programmes to Nigeria, especially DFID programmes, which has been a burning political issue in the UK.
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