Vice President Kashim Shettima has called for stronger ties
between Nigeria and the UK to boost trade between the two countries.
Shettima made the demand on Wednesday when Richard
Montgomery, British high commissioner to Nigeria, paid him a courtesy visit at
the presidential villa, Abuja.
The vice president said there is a need for Nigeria and the
UK to enhance the longstanding relationship they have had by establishing a
bi-national commission.
“I will urge you to facilitate the setting up of the Nigeria-UK binational commission. That binational commission can be the driver for accelerating the business relationship between our two countries,” Shettima said.
“We need to ramp up the trade between our two nations,
taking into cognizance our proximity. There is no nation that we are close to
than the UK and our trade represent less than five percent of the volume of our
import and export.
“Most definitely, we are going to create an enabling
environment for businesses to flourish in this country.”
Shettima emphasised the importance of economic reforms to
position the country’s economy for growth, especially the removal of the petrol
subsidy.
“This is just the
beginning because it was fait accompli to withdraw the fuel subsidy. We either
get rid of the fuel subsidy or the fuel subsidy get rid of the Nigerian
nation,” he said.
“In 2012, we spent $10 billion on fuel subsidy alone. Last
month, we were purportedly consuming 67 million litres per day, but after the removal
of the subsidy, it drops to 41 million barrels per day nearly 40 percent off.
So the whole subsidy regime was opaque, ridden with a lot of inconsistency.”
On the fiscal policy, Shettima said the previous multiple
exchange rate regime was laden with corruption which brought about the
proliferation of so many schemes.
“So, obviously we have no option but to collapse the
exchange rate regimes into one. In the coming weeks and months, we are going to
make more pronouncements on how to reposition the Nigerian economy and make it
vibrant for business,” he said.
On security, the vice president said the country is adopting
both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches towards addressing the challenges.
“Yes, we have to strengthen our security architecture so
that we can be in a stronger bargaining position with the insurrectionists,
Boko Haram terrorists and kidnappers,” Shettima said.
He added that as part of the efforts of the Tinubu
administration towards addressing insecurity, the government will soon roll out
different socio-economic intervention programmes and initiatives in the
north-east that will facilitate empowerment and social inclusion of the
vulnerable groups in the regions.
“So, I can assure you that we will pursue both kinetic and
non-kinetic solutions to our challenges,” he added.
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