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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.