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Lord Mayor of London Visits Lagos
CBC Initiative Prompts High-Level UK/ Nigeria Finance and Banking Dialogue High Level Exchanges on Global Finance Crisis and Gearing-Up Nigeria/UK Business
Leaders of the Nigerian banking and financial service sectors greeted the Lord Mayor of London, The Right Honourable Michael Bear, and a UK business delegation at a working lunch in Lagos organised by the Commonwealth Business Council in association with the Corporation of London and hosted by CBC Chair Dr Pascal Dozie.
The Lord Mayor, travelling with the personal rank of British Cabinet Minister, who is the principal spokesman for the City of London as the world’s principal centre of finance and services and travels outside the UK with the personal rank of Cabinet Minister, was visiting Lagos as part of his official tour of African nations.
Discussions, which focused on the global economic crisis and the opportunities for boosting business exchanges and co-operation between Britain and Nigeria also allowed the hosts to impress upon the Lord Mayor the extent and pace of reform and restructuring in the Nigerian banking and finance sectors and the growth of their presence in the UK, as well as regionally in Africa.
Dr Dozie asked the Lord Mayor to take the message back to UK and international business sectors and the British Government that Nigeria was not just open for business but ahead of the game and keen to share with British partners the huge opportunities which it offers The Lord Mayor described the UK’s focus on Africa. He said that in 2010 around 90% of all international equity capital raised by Africa-focussed companies, was raised on the London Stock Exchange.
He said Africa was transforming in a way no-one thought possible 20 years ago and suddenly a whole new future seemed within reach. In particular, Nigeria’s potential was “limitless” with an economy growing by 8% and at current rates likely to overtake South Africa in a decade. He was in Lagos to find ways in which the City of London could support Nigeria’s growth. On the continuing global financial crisis, the Lord Mayor said the countries with the largest surpluses were using them to meet their own priorities: Japan, to deal with the aftermath of the tsunami; China, to stimulate domestic consumer demand; the Arab states, to diversify away from oil and gas and respond to the Arab Spring; and Germany to rescue Greece and the Eurozone.
Among the high-level delegates was the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Andrew Lloyd.
