Amb ‘Sola Enikanolaiye, Acting High Commissioner, High Commission of Nigeria to India, says the forthcoming India-Africa Forum Summit will provide great opportunities to deepen Nigeria-India bilateral relations.
The forum, scheduled to hold from Oct. 26 to Oct. 28 in New Delhi, aims among other things, to deepen relations between India and African countries.
It is also aimed at identifying new areas of opportunities and collaborations between Africa and India.
Enikanolaiye, who expressed the view in an interview on Monday, said bilateral relations between Nigeria and India at the political and diplomatic levels were excellent.
He, however, said the relations could still be boosted by exchange of visits at all levels, especially at the level of heads of state and governments.
Enikanolaiye said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari shared the same vision and mission with the administration of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi considering that they were both elected on an agenda of change and transformational
leadership.
“Relations at the political and diplomatic levels are excellent although they would be boosted by exchange of visits at all levels, especially at the level of heads of state and governments.
“It is our turn to reciprocate the visit to Nigeria of India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007,” he said.
Enikanolaiye explained that India had indicated interest to buy more crude oil from Nigeria but added that both needed to diversify and deepen relations in the non-oil sector.
“On the trade and economic fronts, we need to diversify and deepen relations in the non-oil sector, yet India desires to buy more of our crude,” he said.
He said that Nigeria was India’s most important trade partner in Africa and India, Nigeria’s in the world.
He expressed satisfaction that Nigeria-India relations had continued to grow since they established diplomatic relations soon after they respectively attained political independence.
“The volume of trade between the two countries, bolstered by excellent political relations, has reached 16.36 billion dollars.
“Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner in Africa and India has become Nigeria’s largest trading partner in the world, being the largest importer of Nigeria’s crude oil.
“Long before the recent slump in oil prices, the two countries had begun to diversify their economic relations while deepening interactions in other spheres.
“The economic relations were characterised by closer people-to-people contacts with the growing involvement of the private sectors of both countries,” he said.
The envoy identified other areas which Nigeria needed to deepen relations with India to include agriculture, renewable energy, education and infrastructure.
“Agriculture and agro-allied industries, medium and small scale industries, renewable energy, especially solar, infrastructure, entrepreneurship, training, education and capacity building are other areas.
“This is in addition to possible collaboration between India’s Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood, both of which are booming in the two countries and in their respective regions.
“Above all, there is the huge area of medical tourism and collaboration in health matters as more and more Nigerians visit India for medical attention,” he said.
Enikanolaiye said arrangements were on from the Nigerian side to ensure that the third India-Africa Forum Summit was mutually beneficial to both countries.
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