India Plans Stronger Trade Ties With Nigeria .

The government of India has said it is looking into addressing the lopsided economic relationship between it and Nigeria.

Figures of trade released by the country show that bilateral relations between both countries for the year ended March 31, 2010 is $8.7 billion. Nigerian export to the Asia country is around $7.3 billion, while that of India to Nigeria is around $1.2 billion. The trade between the two countries is greatly in Nigeria’s favour, thus making it enjoy the trade surplus of $6 billion.

Vishnu Prakash, India’s joint secretary and spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs, told journalists on Monday that both countries have adequate potentials to attract investment that will boost their economic relations.

Important trade partners

“For India, energy security is a very important consideration and we import almost 80 per cent of our energy from the global market. In Africa, Nigeria and Sudan are two key countries from which we import significant amount of petroleum products.

“It is natural that when we are importing hydrocarbons from Nigeria that the trade will be in their favour. I can tell you categorically that we want more trade with Nigeria,” Mr. Prakash said.

He also that there are a number of areas that India and Nigeria can work together to have more trade.

“Pharmaceuticals are one of them because we are global leaders in production drugs which are high quality and of cheap price, and I know that Indian drugs are in high demand in Nigeria.

“Some other areas are in the service sector like the information and communication technologies, the automobile centres, equipment and machinery, and textiles. Increasingly, I find Nigeria is figuring prominently amongst other countries on the business ladder of the Indian companies in terms of investments and trade. I am quite sure of the opportunities that we have,” he added.

Already, there are about 30,000 Indians in Nigeria, less than 1.5 per cent of the total Nigeria population. On the continental scene, the external affairs spokesperson said India had $45 billion of trade with the African continent last year and there are similar number of investments, which are more than $45 billion.

Growing partnership with Africa

$2.3 billion out of the 5.4 billion credit earmarked for Africa in a five-year period has been made available, according to Mr. Prakash. The credit is meant to address the challenges of infrastructure, capacity building, and human resources issues. The upcoming India-Africa Summit in Addis Ababa is part of this collaboration.

The Indian authorities said Africa now has a growing partnership with the country, though it started long back, but acquired considerable substance and momentum only recently.

“With the involvement of Indian business giants such as Tatas, Mahindras, Kirloskars, Ranbaxy, RITES, IRCON, NSIC, TCS, OVL and others, our bilateral ties have impoved a lot, making us the second largest trading partner with them. The India Africa Conclaves and the upcoming Summit in Addis Ababa in May are some of the additional feathers in the cap,” Mr. Prakash said.

Source : 234next.com