The
Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), has said that Britain's decision
to leave the European Union (EU) will have negative consequences on the
Nigerian economy. This is contained in a statement signed by Mr Tony
Ejikeoyen, President of ACCI, on Sunday in Abuja.
``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”, he said.
He further stated that Brexit will no doubt create anxiety for
Nigeria’s policy makers. According to him, this is due to slide in global
markets at this time that Nigeria is trying to revive the economy which is at
the edge of a recession.
ACCI boss 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 also be affected; 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 shows that the UK was
Nigeria’s largest source of foreign investment in 2015. Thus, a decelerating
British economy could impact a drop in investment, trade, and also remittances
from the Nigerian diaspora who sent home over US$20 billion in 2015.
In addition, "reduced trade and investment from Britain may
not necessarily be taken up by the rest of the EU" he said.
He further stated that a shrinking UK economy would definitely
have a significant impact on aid programmes to Nigeria, especially DFID
programmes, which have been a burning political issue in the UK.
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