KEY POINTS

• Starmer and Tinubu sealed new export agreements at Downing Street on Thursday.
• A £746 million UK Export Finance deal covers refurbishment of Lagos and Tin Can Island ports.
• Nigeria became the UK’s biggest export market in Africa in January 2026.

President Bola Tinubu and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer met at 10 Downing Street Thursday and sealed new export agreements that both leaders said signal a deeper phase in the relationship between Africa’s largest economy and its former colonial power.

The UK Nigeria state visit deals, announced on the second and final day of Tinubu’s historic state visit to Britain, the first by a Nigerian president since 1989, build on a series of memoranda of understanding and commercial commitments signed across the two-day programme covering trade, investment, defence, and cultural cooperation.

Starmer’s comment 

Starmer told journalists at Downing Street that the bilateral relationship had already grown considerably but Thursday’s agreements moved it further. “Today is the opportunity to take that to another level with the agreements that we’ve been able to reach on exports, and I think that shows we can go even further than we’ve already gone,” he said.

Tinubu described Nigeria as a country in the middle of serious economic reform while acknowledging that both nations face shared pressures. “Currently, the entire world is challenged. Nigeria is not immune. Britain is not immune,” he said. He linked the terrorism challenges Nigeria confronts to climate change-driven conflict and called for deeper trade relationships as part of the broader response.

£746m port deal anchors the visit’s commercial legacy

The most concrete UK Nigeria state visit deals outcome was a £746 million financing arrangement involving UK Export Finance, the Nigerian Ports Authority, and the Ministry of Finance to refurbish the Lagos Port Complex at Apapa and Tin Can Island Port. The deal brings British export finance directly into Nigeria’s critical trade infrastructure, two ports that handle the bulk of the country’s containerised cargo.

Nigeria confirmed its growing commercial weight in the bilateral relationship when it became the UK’s biggest export market in Africa in January 2026. King Charles III had cited the depth of the people-to-people ties at Wednesday night’s state banquet at Windsor Castle, noting that visitors from Nigeria spent £178 million in Britain in 2024 while 251,000 British travellers went the other way and spent a comparable amount in Nigeria.

UK Nigeria state visit with historical weight on both sides

Starmer described the state visit as historic, acknowledging the long and complex shared history between both countries. The visit, the first inward Nigerian state visit to Britain in 37 years, closed with Tinubu departing for Nigeria on Thursday after a programme that included the Windsor Castle banquet, bilateral talks, and the Downing Street signing session.