Nigeria Content Online

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.”