Nigeria, India Trade Volume Hits $8.7 Billion .

Trade between Nigeria and India is robust and has continued to grow in favour of Nigeria, said Mahesh Sachdev, Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria. Mr. Scahdev said this on Wednesday in Abuja during the 2011 India Republic Day Celebration.

“Bilateral trade between Nigeria and India according to Indian figures for the year ended March 31, 2010 is $8.7 billion,” he said. “We are Nigeria’s second largest trading partner and Nigeria is our largest trading partner in Africa.”

Reeling out statistics of trade relations between the two countries, Mr. Sachdev stated that “Nigeria export is around $7.3 billion and Indian export to Nigeria is around $1.2 billion so the trade between our two countries is greatly in Nigeria’s favour and Nigeria enjoys the trade surplus of $6 billion.”

He said Nigerian crude oil exports to India was the biggest contributor but that other contributions are not very significant since about $7.1 billion dollars worth of oil is exported to India. India’s export to Nigeria includes Indian petroleum exports, pharmaceuticals, steel, automotive equipment and miscellaneous items. Mr. Sachdev said the country will intensify efforts to correct the trade imbalance between the two countries.

“We would like Nigerians to buy more from India. Deficit of $6 billion is not the right thing for us to have. We need the Nigerian crude but Nigeria needs many things they can get from India at affordable cost with affordable level of technology,” he said.

Pratibha Devisingh Patil, president of India in her speech read worldwide said: “26th January is a very significant date in our national calendar, when we celebrate the establishment of free India as a republic based on ideology of justice and equality.

“It is a day when we recall with gratitude the sacrifices of our freedom fighters and the work of our founding fathers for giving us a country where our dignity and individual freedoms are guaranteed by an enlightened constitution.”

Mrs. Patil added that Indians are fortunate to have inherited the ideals and values of one of the world’s oldest civilizations, bequeathing them with the rich treasure of human experiences and thought. Optimistic of better economic growth in the coming years, she said, “It is heartening that our economy is progressing at a stable pace. Even in the face of difficult circumstances during the global financial downturn, its performance was appreciable. We are now returning to the pre-crisis growth pattern and are confident of growing at over 9 percent next year all sectors of the economy will be contributors to our growth trajectory.”

Source : 234next.com