Worried by the massive trade imbalance between the United Kingdom (UK) and Nigeria in favour of the UK, the United Kingdom Trade and Investment (UKTI) has said it is seeking ways to help more goods from Nigeria to access the UK market.

Trade between the two nations is 3-billion pounds, but the skew in favour of the UK worries the director of UKTI Nigeria, Peter Stephenson, THISDAY reports.

Power generators are the most imported products into Nigeria from the UK, at a cost of 200-million pounds annually.

‘We look after trade and investment issues on behalf of the UK. We are interested in developing trade with Nigeria, the second largest market with Britain in Africa after South Africa. Even though South Africa is a bigger market for us, the trade balance in favour of Britain with Nigeria is actually quite large. One of the things we want to see is an increase purchase of Nigerian goods and services as well,’ says Stephenson.

Stephenson says trade and investment issues are at the top of the agenda of the UK’s new coalition government.

Volume of trade between Nigeria and UK last year in terms of export out from UK was 1.3-billion pounds, while import from Nigeria to the UK stood at 600-million pounds, with most of the imports being oil and gas.

According to available statistics, cocoa, coffee and tea spices exports from Nigeria to UK amounted to only 12-million pounds in 2009.