Nigeria and India are strengthening their bilateral ties, with a focus on defense cooperation, agriculture health  and economic relations.   

President Bola Tinubu and the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi  reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing the strategic partnership between the two nations during a state visit by the later in Abuja on Sunday.

This partnership has been robust, driven by strong economic cooperation, trade, and investment, with approximately 200 Indian companies investing around $27 billion in Nigeria.

Key areas of Cooperation include: Defense Cooperation, education, health, agriculture, mining, digital infrastructure and oil and gas.

Addressing the media shortly after the state visit, Secretary to the Indian Prime Minister, Dummy  Ravi said Nigeria and India are working together to strengthen their defense capabilities, with areas of mutual interest including intelligence sharing, joint training, and other support for Nigeria’s drive to end insecurity.

India is Nigeria’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade volume reaching $15 billion in 2021-2022, representing a 69.80% increase.

Meanwhile, the two leaders also revealed that there is going to be a 300-bed hospital in Abuja, which will be opened very shortly with expatriate doctors and technicians and others from India with modern technology. The  hospital chain according to them, will be expanding itself into other geopolitical areas too, in addition  to other  activity taking place in the healthcare sector.

In terms of Investment, he said Indian companies have invested heavily in Nigeria’s manufacturing sector, with estimated investments of around $27 billion.

The Consulate of India in Lagos plays a crucial role in facilitating trade and economic relations between the two nations. With a large Indian expatriate community in Nigeria, the bilateral relationship is expected to continue growing.

“The two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation in the field of trade, investment, defence, security, education, health, culture and people-to-people level at the delegation level talks. And the two leaders also focused on further enhancing the strategic partnership in various sectors, in particular in agriculture, pharma, railways, transportation and development cooperation fields.

The two leaders also discussed ways to further expand this economic partnership for the mutual benefit of the two countries. Indian companies are also creating large number of jobs in Nigeria. Capacity building with a large number of scholarship and digital education methods.”

Education

In area of education, Ravi said “Nigerian students have availed significant facilities both in this country and also in India under the ITEC program.”

READ ALSO: Sen Nwoko calls for ban on use of dollar, other foreign currencies in Nigeria

Ondo Guber INEC’s worst performance — PDP

Global relation

He said that both leaders also discussed global and regional issues. And in that context, they reiterated their commitment to further deepen their commitment to the global south and how to take forward the agenda of the global south in the global discourse, particularly to meet the aspirations of developing countries.

Furthermore, during the talks, there  was exchanges of three memorandum of understandings covering various cultural exchange program, customs cooperation and survey cooperation.

Responding to question on the global South and India’s position on Nigeria’s quest  for UN Security Council Seat, Ravi said, “there is a very strong commitment for both leaders to deepen this understanding that the agenda of the development, which is so dear to the Global South countries, is taken forward. And the global discourse is built on that development agenda. I  think India and Nigeria are well positioned to play that role. Both now in the G20, India is a strong partner. And also, African Union, which is now a permanent member of G20, and Nigeria is a very strong country within the AU, and it’s also an invitee country for the G20.

Also, Nigeria, given that it’s become a partner country of the BRICS, in different ways, both India and Nigeria can take up the agenda of development and put it in the center of the global discourse. And that’s the idea, and both leaders have discussed about the need to continuously address the aspirations and challenges of the countries in the Global South. On the development issues, we talked about the sharing of experiences between the two countries.”

In the digital space, he said, ‘there is a lot to achieve. In the energy space, in the renewable energy space, to fight the climate change, there is, again, a significant scope for both countries to come forward.”

On the agriculture front, he said there have been serious talk on food security, the delegation level talks, includes; how we can, both India and Nigeria work towards the food security concept in the Global South for developing countries. “And in that context, the idea of seed supplies, the mechanization, the tractors, research and development, collaboration on that front, and storage and distribution, the lentils, all these ideas came up in the delegation level talks. But I think we will be further building on these ideas subsequently at the expert level. And there is a lot of scope.

“I think Nigeria and many African countries provides an opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs to be able to grow food crops in this part of the world and help in the food security. I think those are the ideas I’ll ask the High Commissioner to supplement on, ” he added.

Health Sector

Still on pharma and medicine, Ravi said, “there are nearly $4 billion of investment by Indian companies in the pharmaceutical sector here.  There is already existing eye hospitals of India here in Abuja and in Lagos, as well as another multi-speciality hospital.”

Oil and Gas sector

On oil and gas investment, the Secretary  to Indian Prime Minister said there was a very good concentration of topic on oil and gas investment. “Some Indian companies are already working on the CNG areas, which is the focus area of the President also. There are companies which are working in CNG city-wide network as well as setting up the outlets for CNG over here. CNG kits are being also sent over here so that it can be put in the cars and vehicles to use the CNG.

The Prime Minister had arrived in Abuja on Saturday evening, and upon arrival, he was received by ministers for Federal Capital Territory, Nyeson Wike, who offered the key to the city of Abuja to Prime Minister.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister departed Abuja for Rio de Janeiro to participate in the G20 Summit, where Nigeria has also been invited as a guest country. I’ll stop here.