A landmark £746 million UK–Nigeria infrastructure deal has delivered a record-breaking export order for British Metal, in a significant increase for UK manufacturing and worldwide commerce ties.
The settlement, backed by UK Export Finance (UKEF), will fund the redevelopment of two of Nigeria’s largest ports in Lagos, the Lagos Port Complicated (Apapa Quays) and TinCan Island Port, whereas channelling at the least £236 million into British suppliers.
On the centre of the deal is a £70 million contract for British Metal to provide 120,000 tonnes of metal billets, marking the corporate’s largest-ever export order supported by UKEF and one of many greatest billet orders in its historical past.
The financing package deal has been structured by UKEF’s Purchaser Credit score Facility and organized by Citi, underlining the UK authorities’s growing use of export finance to drive industrial development and safe abroad contracts for British companies.
Ministers have positioned the deal as an early sign that the federal government’s newly launched Metal Technique is starting to ship tangible outcomes, with a deal with boosting home manufacturing whereas increasing international export alternatives.
Enterprise and Commerce Secretary Peter Kyle described the settlement as a “main win for British Metal”, including that it demonstrates each the power of UK manufacturing and the deepening industrial relationship between the UK and Nigeria.
The undertaking is predicted to help 1000’s of expert jobs throughout the UK provide chain, significantly in industrial heartlands reminiscent of Scunthorpe, the place British Metal employs round 4,000 folks.
The Nigerian authorities, in the meantime, has framed the funding as a transformative step in modernising its maritime infrastructure and unlocking development inside its “blue economic system”.
Dr Adegboyega Oyetola, Nigeria’s Minister of Marine and Blue Financial system, stated the upgrades would considerably enhance port effectivity, cut back bottlenecks and decrease logistics prices, whereas enabling sooner motion of products throughout West and Central Africa.
He added that digitalisation and automation would exchange legacy, paper-based techniques, enhancing transparency and predictability for companies working by Nigerian ports.
The settlement was signed alongside a broader Memorandum of Understanding between the UK and Nigeria, establishing a framework for future commerce and funding collaboration. The MoU units out a pipeline of precedence infrastructure tasks that would appeal to additional UKEF-backed financing, creating further alternatives for British exporters.
The deal additionally displays a wider strategic push by the UK authorities to strengthen financial ties with high-growth markets, significantly in Africa, the place demand for infrastructure funding continues to rise.
Since 2018, UKEF help for West and Central Africa has elevated by greater than £3 billion, highlighting a shift in the direction of extra lively government-backed export promotion.
For British Metal, the contract represents a major milestone following a interval of instability that required authorities intervention in 2025. Chief government Allan Bell stated the deal marks a transition from stabilisation to long-term sustainability for the enterprise.
“This can be a record-breaking contract and an incredible vote of confidence in British Metal and UK manufacturing,” he stated, including that it demonstrates how public coverage and export finance can mix to unlock international demand.
Trade observers observe that the construction of the deal, with a considerable proportion of funding tied to UK suppliers, displays a extra interventionist industrial technique geared toward maximising home financial profit from worldwide agreements.
The redevelopment of Lagos’s port infrastructure can be anticipated to have wider financial implications, enhancing commerce flows, decreasing congestion and strengthening Nigeria’s place as a regional logistics hub.
For the UK, the settlement reinforces its ambition to stay a aggressive exporter of business items and companies in an more and more contested international market, whereas supporting home employment and provide chains.
As geopolitical uncertainty reshapes international commerce dynamics, offers of this scale are prone to turn into more and more vital in sustaining development, significantly for sectors reminiscent of metal which have confronted extended aggressive and value pressures.
The UK–Nigeria partnership, officers say, is meant to function a mannequin for future collaboration, combining public finance, non-public capital and industrial functionality to ship each financial and strategic returns.
Amy Ingham
Amy is a newly certified journalist specialising in enterprise journalism at Enterprise Issues with duty for information content material for what’s now the UK’s largest print and on-line supply of present enterprise information.
