India Nigeria Relations

Context:

India’s External affairs minister co-chaired the 6th Joint Commission Meeting between India and Nigeria at Abuja, Nigeria.

Both Countries agreed to strengthen the efforts in the sectors of power, renewables, transport, healthcare, fintech, agriculture and security, including people-to-people exchange, energy, mobility and consular cooperations.
Stressed on expanding economic cooperation, especially trade and investment between the two countries.

The Bilateral trade volume between Nigeria and India has fallen from US$ 14.95 billion in 2021-22 to US$ 11.8 billion in 2022-23.
- This is mainly because of a decrease in the volume of oil purchased from Nigeria.
Nigeria has become India’s largest trading partner in West Africa and around $20 billion is India’s investment in Nigeria.

Nigeria is one of the leading suppliers of crude oil to India about 12% of India’s oil imports is based in Nigeria.

Two agreements for extension of Lines of Credit @ US$ 30 million for a gas-fired turbine electricity generation station in Cross River State of Nigeria and @ US$ 31.05 million for 3 sub-projects including 2×60 MVA transmission substation, solar-powered street lights and 50kVA mini-grids in Kaduna State of Nigeria are under implementation.
Since 1964, India has supported Nigeria’s capacity-building efforts under the Indian Technical and 7 Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme. India annually offers Nigeria about 250 civilian and 250 defense training slots under ITEC/e-ITEC.

This is integral to the strategic partnership between India and Nigeria.
Among the areas of cooperation include counter-terrorism and counterinsurgency (CT/CI), sea piracy and exchange of visits between training institutes.
India has been providing training, capacity building & supplying defense equipment to the Nigerian defense forces.
The National Defense Academy at Kaduna symbolizes our army cooperation.

The Indian community in Nigeria is estimated to be about 50,000 persons, including Indian nationals and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) card holders.

India and Nigeria play an important role in South-South cooperation.
The struggle against colonialism and apartheid in the formative years after the independence of the two countries laid a strong foundation for the engagement of the two countries.
In the multilateral organizations particularly the United Nations, G77 and NAM, both countries have been articulating the voice of the developing world in a coordinated and effective manner.

It is officially recognised as the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
It is a West African country located between the Sahel in the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the South, along the Atlantic Ocean.
It is the most populous nation & largest economy on the African continent.
It is a very diverse Nation which consists of more than 250 ethnic groups and out of them Hausa, Yoruba, and Igbo are predominant.

India Nigeria

News Source: The Hindu

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