By Joy Odor
As Nigeria continue to battle with its dwindling economic coupled with constan power failure, naria depreciation and food scarcity, her trade value of enterpreneurship on vocational training to reduce unemployment stands at about 35% while India use its entrapreneurship to bring its unemployment levels down to around 7%.
Professor Yemi Osinbanjo, Vice President of the Republic of Nigeria, made this known while inaugurating Nigeria India Business Council (NIBC) and declarating open, India Trade Mission to Nigeria and Nigeria-India Business Forum with the Theme: Expanding Trade and Investment Opportunities between Nigeria and India in Abuja on Monday.
A report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed that India bought goods worth N874.9bn from Nigeria, amounting to 15.2 percent of total exports.
Recall that India is the top trading partner for Nigeria in the fourth quarter of 2021.
A breakdown of the trade indicated that the largest commodity bought by India was petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude at N774.5bn, followed by natural gas liquefied at N89.8bn and liquefied petroleum gas N6.7bn.
Conversely, Nigeria bought goods from India to the tune of N430.4bn, of which, kerosene type jet fuel ranked highest with a value of N40.1bn.
Represented by Architect Olamilekan Adegbite, Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Prof. Osinbanjo noted that through enterpreneurship, India has been able to boost exports of goods and services to about $546 billion while Nigeria is only at $70 billion.
Nigeria Vice President said he feel there is the need to put emphasis on skills acquisition and capacity building which placed a large numbers of young people on the workplace, boost the nation’s capacity, innovation and technology as well as contributing nations economic growth.
Osinbanjo added that other areas to encourage Indian investors consider providing in Nigeria are medical and educational services for which Nigerians travel to India given the scale of demand.
In addition, promoting growth, and improving the welfare and material conditions of Nigeria people, Nigeria and India have a shared interest in successfully tackling the challenges facing the global economy, such as climate change, global public health emergencies like the COVID-19 and the fallout of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
He assured India that the Federal Government will render the necessary support to all inward investment by continuing its efforts to improve the business environment and providing necessary incentives such as power status, rural location incentive, export expansion scheme, gas realization as well as investment allowances.
“Similarly, through enterpreneurship, India has been able to boost exports of goods and services to about $546 billion while Nigeria is only at $70 billion.
“I feel that there is also need to put emphasis on skills acquisition and capacity building which placed a large numbers of young people on the workplace, as well as the nation’s capacity, innovation and technology as well as contributing nations economic growth.
“Other areas of emphasis we encourage Indian investors to consider providing in Nigeria are, some of the medical and educational services for which Nigerians travel to India given the scale of demand.
“On the spot, the federal government will render the necessary support to all inward investment by continuing its efforts to improve the business environment and providing necessary incentives.
“Some of the incentives again include power status, rural location incentive, export expansion scheme gas realization as well as investment allowances” he said
Osinbanjo opined that given the ample scope for mutually beneficial economic exchange between Nigeria and India in many ways, both countries are natural collaborators.
He narrated that Nigeria and India are both populous, diverse democracies with a shared colonial heritage that speak the same language of business and both have dynamic, vibrant markets, which provide opportunities for trade and investment.
“In addition to our common aspiration for promoting growth, and improving the welfare and material conditions of our people, Nigeria and India have a shared interest in successfully tackling the challenges facing the global economy, such as climate change, global public health emergencies like the COVID-19 and the fallout of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
“There are quite a few areas in which Nigeria and India can build on their already cordial an active bilateral relationship.
“These include education, creative industries, digital economic, pharmaceutical, agriculture, manufacturing, oil and gas, and I’m certainly, such side will continue to blossom.
“Indeed, I expect that the Nigerian Indian business council will be an active vehicle to further strengthen and consolidate our existing bonds of friendship, and also serve as a platform to coordinate and facilitate business and investment interactions between the business communities outputs countries” Osinbanjo noted
He therefore charged the Nigerian India Business Council to work closely with the high commissions of both country to promote and coordinate the flow of trade and investment between the two countries.
Speaking at the inauguration, V. Sharma, President of NIBC said India is already doing great business with Nigeria and will continue to import crude and gas from the country, saying with 14 to 15 billion dollars of trade today, the potential is to reach about 40 billion dollars.
He said the gap is about 25 to 26 billion dollars which is a big opportunity.
commenting, Niyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and lnvestment in his keynote address confirmed that trade relations between India and Nigeria have been carefully cultivated over the years since 1958.
Mr Otunba Richard Niyi Adebayo, Minister of Industry, Trade and lnvestment in his keynote address confirmed that trade relations between India and Nigeria have been carefully cultivated over the years since 1958.
Adebayo said because of the relationship, India is the third largest exporter to Nigeria and one of the leading investors with export to Nigeria amounting to over $5.6 billion in the year 2020 and an investment base at about $20 billion.
He said, in addition, Nigeria also exported over $3.1 billion worth of products to India in 2020 making Nigeria the largest supplier of crude oil to India, stressing that the foundation for economic synergy has been built as the next step is to scale it up in a way that it would be beneficial to both countries.
The Minister disclosed that Nigeria is now one of 14 African countries to develop an online investment guide, called “l-Guide” Nigeria to help investors make better informed decisions about investing in Nigeria on the processes, procedures and basic costs of setting up and doing business in Nigeria.
“Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world. Yet, surprisingly, we import over 95% of the starch we use. We estimate a market opportunity of almost $300 billion for industrial touch production in Nigeria.
“We are also dedicated to improving our manufacturing and production capacity. To this effect, we have 17 operational special economic zones with four more currently under construction, 14 of these are general economic zones, which support export processing, largely manufacturing, warehousing, logistics services, tourism, food processing, packaging and technology development. The remaining three are dedicated to oil and gas related activities.
“The Nigerian Government has dedicated a great deal of resources to ensuring that we are able to provide an enabling environment for investment. We have introduced a finance status incentive which gives a tax break to start up businesses across multiple sectors including agriculture, ecommerce, transportation and business process outsourcing.
“Nigeria is a signatory to the African continental free trade area agreement. This agreement has the capacity to boost inter African trade as expected to deliver an integrated continental market consisting of 1.2 7 billion consumers with an aggregate GDP of 3.4 trillion dollars.
In his address, Alkali Baba Usman, inspector General of Police (IGP) assured India citizens living in Nigeria and Nigerian of maximum security protection.
IGP told the India citizens staying in Nigeria to co-operate with Nigeria police and other security agencies by not making themselves an easy target, promising that India citizens will live in Nigeria as if they are living in India country.
