By Thompson ABISOLA
British Prime Minister Theresa May is to visit Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya from Monday for the first time in order to forge new trade links for post-Brexit Britain.
May becomes the first British leader to visit sub-Saharan Africa in five years, making a three-day trip that includes meetings with the presidents of South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya.
The prime minister will bring a trade delegation with her in an attempt to boost Britain’s post-Brexit export prospects, although her visit comes at a time when the British government has been accused of a paying insufficient attention to the region.
May has never visited sub-Saharan Africa. Her only previous trip to the continent was a visit to Tunisia in 2015 in the aftermath of the Sousse hotel terror attack.
Speaking ahead of her flight to South Africa on Monday evening, the prime minister said, “Africa stands right on the cusp of playing a transformative role in the global economy” and that “a more prosperous, growing and trading Africa is in all of our interests.”
It would be recalled that UK has voted to leave the European Union. It is scheduled to depart at 11 p.m. UK time on Friday March 29, 2019.
The UK and EU have provisionally agreed on the three “divorce” issues of how much the UK owes the EU, what happens to the Northern Ireland border and what happens to UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU and EU citizens living in the UK.
Talks are now focusing on the detail of those issues – there is yet to be agreement on how to avoid having a physical Northern Ireland border – and on future relations.
To buy more time, the two sides have agreed on a 21-month “transition” period to smooth the way to post-Brexit relations.
The UK cabinet has just agreed how it sees those future relations working and will now be seeing if the EU agrees.
May will become the first British leader in five years to visit sub-Saharan Africa. The prime minister will bring a trade delegation with her on a chartered RAF Voyager in an attempt to boost Britain’s post-Brexit export prospects, although she comes at a time when the government has been accused of a paying insufficient attention to the region.
The last time a British prime minister visited sub-Saharan Africa was in December 2013 when David Cameron attended Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
He had intended to return in the summer of 2016 in the final days of his premiership but the planned visit was abandoned when May took over as Conservative leader earlier than anticipated.
May has never visited sub-Saharan Africa. Her only previous trip to the continent was a visit to Tunisia in 2015 in the aftermath of the Sousse hotel terror attack.
Speaking ahead of her flight to South Africa on Monday evening, the prime minister said: “Africa stands right on the cusp of playing a transformative role in the global economy” and that “a more prosperous, growing and trading Africa is in all of our interests”.
