Charles Bowman, Lord Mayor of London, moves to advance Nigeria, UK trade

Armed with the objectives of advancing the ties and fine-tuning trade opportunities existing between the United Kingdom and Nigeria, Charles Bowman, Lord Mayor of London embarked on a three-day visit which ended at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.

During his visit to the NSE, Bowman said the meetings he’s had over the last three days with business and government leaders have been to build financial partnerships between Nigerian and London.

The visit is a move to further cement the long robust relationship between both countries.

The Mayor had earlier hinted that his visit would highlight how London’s booming FinTech sector can partner with Nigerian businesses of the future.

Expressing delight at his meeting with emerging business leaders of Fintechs such as Paga, Flutterwave, among others in Yaba on Wednesday, Bowman said, “you have got some extraordinary talent bursting out, which is a great success story.

Bowman explained that in the UK following the global financial crisis, growth in the sector was based on a strategic direction supported by the government, a healthy regulatory environment and good private investments, which he said has helped in really growing the hive of expertise London has now.

“A large part of the expertise is the Fintech services and as we move forward the financial services are gaining from it, it is largely about collaboration, and that sense of collaboration between this great country and our own, I see as a huge opportunity, ” he said.

He also noted that talks along likely investments in infrastructure, governance and standards, access to capital, all of which provide significant opportunity towards attaining one of the goals of commonwealth nations in increased intra-commonwealth trade to $2 trillion by 2030 were debated.

Bowman hinted that there was a productive and constructive discussion earlier today ( Thursday) between himself and business leaders. ” We had a debate on how we should focus our time, where we should focus and other considerations. The opportunities across the countries for developing free trade are enormous,” he said.

Other countries to be visited by the Mayor in the course of the year include South Korea, Japan, India.