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British Virgin Islands Finance, a company set up to market and promote the British Virgin Islands as a premier offshore financial centre, has announced a two-week trade mission to three African countries, including Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya. The trade mission will hold from November 5-16, 2018.

The mission, according to a statement by BVI Finance on Monday, will be led by the Minister of Finance and Premier of BVI, Orlando Smith. He will be accompanied by a BVI Finance team and the Africa Expert Network – the BVI Finance’s consultants for the trade mission.

During the Premier’s visit, there will be high-level meetings with government officials and private sector executives. Three mini conferences will be held in Cape Town, Nairobi and Lagos. These conferences will provide opportunity for the delegation to promote BVI as a jurisdiction, and present the benefits of BVI products and services such as private equity and venture capital offerings, investment funds, trust, estate and succession planning.

These products and services, together with BVI Business and Micro Business Company, will enhance efforts to broaden and deepen relationships with African businesses.

“We’ve set our sights on Africa for quite some time now as it represents a major opportunity for our financial services industry,” the Interim Executive Director of BVI Finance, Lorna Smith, said. “We look forward to taking our message to the governments and business centres where we can work effectively to develop relationship that will benefit all.”

She added that the visit will further strengthen the profile of BVI in Africa. She said the release of the Capital Economics report highlighted that the BVI has been doing considerable business on the continent. Nigeria alone has received the largest foreign direct investment stock from BVI, amounting to $2.9 billion.

Earlier this year, the BVI – the British overseas territory in the eastern part of the Caribbean Sea – had also embarked on Asia Trade Mission, which covered Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. The mission held from June 4-15.