"PM Modi's visit to Nigeria first in 17 years": Economic Relations Secretary Dammu Ravi

PM Modi is visiting Nigeria at the invitation of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

"Prime Minister will be making a state visit to Nigeria from November 16-17. It will be at the invitation of the President of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This visit is happening after a gap of 17 years. The first visit of the Prime Minister to the West African region. The last visit, took place in October 2007 by Manmohan Singh, and that was the time when both sides established strategic partnership," he said.

Ravi said that PM Modi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome in Nigeria and the Nigerian President AND pm Modi will have one-on-one meeting. The leaders will then hold delegation-level talks and will sign five MoUs thereafter.

"As you all know, the Nigerian President Tinubu visited India last year, September, for the G20 summit. at the invitation of the Prime Minister as the guest country, and that has paved the way for Nigeria to participate in Brazil also as an invited country for the G20 summit. The program of the Prime Minister includes a ceremonial welcome on the November 17 at the President Villa. He will have a one-on-one meeting with President Tinubu thereafter. And then the delegation-level talks will review bilateral relations, the entire gamut of it, and thereafter will also explore avenues to further expand and enhance the relationship. During the delegation talks, there will be exchange of memorandum of understandings, about five of them. Some of them are still work in progress, but broadly covering areas of culture, geological survey, the digital public infrastructure, customs, traditional medicine, audiovisual cooperation, so on and so forth. Prime Minister will interact with the Indian diaspora at the community event later that afternoon before he will move on to Rio that evening," he said.

Talking about India-Nigeria relations, Ravi said that the two countries enjoyed cordial relations since 1960s.

"I'd like to bring the relationship into context just to say briefly, Nigeria is a very large economy within Africa. second or third in terms of the GDP. The population is about 220 million, which is the largest country in Africa. Both India and Nigeria enjoy strong cordial relationship for a very long time, since 1960, ever since it won independence. Relationship are underpinned by shared values of democracy, respect for pluralism, rule of law on diversity. Both the countries are multi-religious, multi-ethnic, and multi-linguistic countries. And most importantly, in the recent times, Nigeria's active involvement in the African Union has increased, and we see there is a strong partnership between our two countries in the context of India-Africa Forum Summit. Nigeria also has become a partner country of BRICS, and it is currently holding the chairship of the ECOWAS region, that is West African region. As you all know that India's involvement in Africa has been very long. Indian teaching and teachers have been there in that country for several decades. Our teachers have helped to teach the students of several generations in Nigeria," he said.

He added that the defence and diaspora relations between the two countries is strong.

"Our defense cooperation is very active. Our military officers have helped to establish defense institutions, particularly the National Defense Academy, the National War College in Nigeria. The Indian diaspora is very strong, about 60,000, and it is the largest diaspora in West Africa. People-to-people contacts have been very strong and enduring. The bilateral trade has been very strong also, about USD 15 billion close to it, and a significant part of it is oil imports from Nigeria into India. We also have a strong presence of the Indian companies in Nigeria. About USD 27 billion in cumulative terms has been invested by Indian companies in Nigeria, 200 Indian companies involved in a variety of sectors, and Indian companies are the second largest employment provider in that country," he said.

Ravi said that India has sent USD 400 million for developmental assistance.

"In terms of development assistance, we have a strong partnership with Nigeria. India sent USD 400 million of assistance, but Nigeria has used only USD 100 million assistance so far for various projects, particularly in the power sector. And USD 290 million of dollars is being repurposed for their own initiatives and their own areas of interest," he said.

The cooperation between both the countries in terms of education is also extensive, as India offers 500 scholarships to Nigeria every year.

"The ITEC scholarships that India has offered is also quite extensive. We offer to Nigeria about 500 scholarships a year. 250 for civilian experts, and 250 for defense experts who come to India for training. Since 1960s, since the ITEC scholarship were offered to them, we have trained about 27,500 Nigerian experts in India," he added. (ANI)