Nigeria, India to strengthen investment ties

The Indian Government has expressed willingness to partner with Nigeria to promote trade relations between the two countries.

Sheila Sudhakaran, Assistant Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said this yesterday in Lagos that both the Indian government and investors are prepared to partner with Nigeria and other West Africa countries to promote trade.

She was speaking at a road show organised by the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS) and India's Chambers of Commerce and Industry, held at the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria's (MAN) office at Ikeja, a prelude to next year's economic forum between private investors from West Africa and their counterparts from India.

Ms Sudhakaran said that the Indian investors chose to partner with entrepreneurs from West Africa, to "strengthen comprehensive economic engagement between India and the West African Countries."

She said that the key sectors, which the Indians seek to partner with Nigerians and other West African investors include: healthcare and pharmaceuticals; information and communication technology; infrastructure (including roads and railways, transport and construction); natural resources (non-oil); Agrifood and allied services; and power.

Joseph Ifejika, MAN's director of Field Service, who represented the association, said that the road show is meant to inform entrepreneurs in Nigeria of the forthcoming ‘ECOWAS/India Economic and trade forum' scheduled to hold in Lagos from January 14 to 16, 2010.

Mr. Ifejika said the forum will offer Nigerian business owners the opportunity to meet their counterparts from India and discuss ways to improve their businesses.

Nigeria/India trade keeps growing

Speaking at the event, Mahesh Sachdev, the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, said that Nigeria is India's second largest trade partners and that according to India's data, the bilateral trade between the two countries is estimated at $10.2 billion.

Mr. Sachdev said despite the fact that Nigeria's foreign trade fell significantly in 2008, the bilateral trade between India and Nigeria, during the period grew about 18.5 per cent, above 2007 levels "despite the economic meltdown".

He argued that the trade volumes show that "India consumers and the Nigerian consumers seem to have discovered each other and have their own reasons for preferring each other's goods and services with disregard to the global economic downturn."

Mr. Sachdev said the economic recession, "raised Nigeria's interest in goods from India, which are relatively cheaper than those from elsewhere. Before the African countries started importing generic drugs from India, the continent used to spend about $10,000 annually to provide healthcare par patient. However, these countries now spend just $72 annually par patient for the same drugs," he said.

He said that India's economy is driven by the small scale business sector and that the difference between the small scale businesses in Nigeria and those in India, is the technology and ideas that are applied. He further said the ECOWAS-India economic forum will allow Indian investors to exchange ideas and technology with their counterparts from Nigeria, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Senegal.

The role of ECOWAS

Lambert Bamba, ECOWAS' Commissioner for Macroeconomic Policy, who was represented by Enobong Umoessien of the commission's Business/Enterprise Promotion- Private Sector desk, said that the Indian government, through the proposed Economic forum plans to open a credit line for small business owners.

Mr. Umoessien said: "The Indian government has agreed to open a credit line of $500 million for investors from West Africa."

He said the decision to partner with India, in promoting West African trade was taken by the region's leaders after a summit of the President and heads of governments. "At that summit, the West African leaders unanimously agreed to partner with India to promote the bilateral trade between the countries in the sub region and with India."

The ECOWAS-India Economic Forum, tagged, "Namaskar Africa," is meant to provide companies from India and the countries of West Africa an opportunity to collaborate on trade, joint ventures and investment opportunities.