If the last news you heard coming out of the United Kingdom (UK) was the not-so-great one about its new immigration rules, this latest update might excite you a little—the UK has revealed that Nigerians can now import a total of 3,000 different products into its territories without having to pay any tariffs.
What’s going on?
In a press conference in Abuja on May 14, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, said that his country is eager to see more Nigerians take advantage of a trade deal that has made 3,000 products duty-free. You might just be hearing about it now, but the trade deal is not so new. It is known as the Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP), and was signed in February 2025.
What’s the ETIP about?
The ETIP is a trade framework jointly designed by Nigeria and the UK to foster mutual growth between the two countries. Described by the UK as “the first of its kind with an African country, and only globally,” ETIP primarily covers eight different sectors: Clean Growth, Education, Health and Life Sciences, Creative Industries, Agriculture, Finance and Financial Services, Legal Services and Investment, and regulatory Cooperation (which takes care of technical trade barriers, intellectual property, customs, and trade facilitation).
Things that exist under the ETIP include the Propcom+ programme, supporting “more than 4 million people in Nigeria (50% of whom are women) to adopt and scale sustainable agricultural practices to ensure food security,” the operation of Elephant healthcare in Kaduna State, to digitise its public primary healthcare system, and the 3,000 tariff free products under the Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) and Trade for Development programme.
What products can Nigerians export to the UK without tariffs?
Gather all your japa friends together; you just might find something you want to export here. We can’t list the entire 3,000 tariff-free products here, but some of them include cocoa, cotton, flowers, fertilisers, frozen shrimps, plantain, sesame, fresh tomatoes, olive oil, yam, and cashew nuts.
“Nigeria has significant potential to benefit from DCTS, and we encourage more Nigerian exporters to take advantage of the opportunity to continue to trade tariff-free with the UK,” the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Richard Montgomery, said. “We have a Nigerian DCTS champion currently using the DCTS to scale her business. We want to see many more,” he continued.
Montgomery also highlighted other ways the ETIP is benefiting Nigerians, such as the support provided to Nigerian startups to scale and internationalise through the UK’s Global Entrepreneurs Programme.
How can I take advantage of these initiatives?
Nigerians curious to see ways they can take advantage of DCTS and other things under Nigeria and the UK’s Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership (ETIP) can check here for more information.
