Economic bond between Nigeria and India

The bilateral relation between Nigeria and India on the economic front is getting stronger day by day. When we talk about trade, India has contributed immensely to the development in Nigeria. Looking at the nature of trade between Nigeria and India in the past 10 years, India has been the largest partner. Nigeria is known as one of the large oil producing country in the world, and India as one of of the oil consumption country due to high production of engineering good, pharmaceuticals, agricultural product, plastics, and so on, purchase a lot of oil from Nigeria, which makes Nigerian one of the top supplier of oil for India

There are more than 130 Indian companies in Nigeria. Indian companies in Nigeria have invested more than 19.3 billion dollars worth of investment in almost every available sector, which generates employment for countless Nigerians. After the Nigerian federal government, Indian companies are the second employer of labour in Nigeria. With different branches of Indian companies across the nation, Nigerians could get jobs in different sectors, ranging from pharmaceuticals, to oil, manufacturing, plastics, telecommunication, Banking, and so on. After MTN, Airtel is the second largest telecommunication provider in Nigeria, which is owned by Bharti Airtel, based in India (One of the largest telecommunication companies in the world). In the power and oil sector, India is also an active player

Why Indians found the Nigerian atmosphere conducive is probably because of the way the Nigerian government has been helping and supporting foreign investors in the country. NIBC (Nigeria-India business council) was established to expand trade between the two countries. Unlike Venezuela, where the government demanded larger share of revenue from international companies, Nigeria create an environment where investors would not be choked by exorbitant tax

Lagos State, is where the Indians largely dominate. Most of their businesses were mounted in Lagos, and it's mainly their head office. Some of the Indian establishments in Nigeria are Dana group, Lacasera, Olam Nigeria Limited, Kewalram Chanrai group, Conoil, Nipco, Bajaj auto, Sterling bank, Churchgate, Spectranet, to mention but a few. The conducive environment designed by the government made Indians love coming to work and establish in Nigeria which has enormously generate employment for the Nigerian citizens and also create economic prosperity

Presently, the most challenging factor that is affecting foreign investors in Nigeria is insecurity. Nigeria needs private capital to boost economic growth and also create more jobs for people. The nation is in dire need of foreign investors. The inadequate security of life and properties has made Nigeria to lose many foreign investors. Most of the Indian investments have been around for decades before the insecurity problems set in, and it has been properly managed though. However, new investors are not convinced to start up their business here owing to the boko haram insurgency and various kidnapping issues happening all over the country

As a matter of fact, we need both foreign and local investors. However, if Indian businesses happen to be the 2nd largest employer of labour in Nigeria, after the Nigerian government, it means the local investors have a lot of work to do to help the country move forward. Dangote group is one of the prominent Nigerian Investors that is making waves all over Africa. If Nigeria can have local investors just like the Indian investors in Nigeria, more jobs would be created, and the economy would take a leap