India and Nigeria have a long history of fruitful relationships for the past several decades. The relationship between these two rapidly growing nations started a couple of years before Nigeria became independent. The challenges before India and Nigeria are similar: economic development and the removal of poverty, illiteracy and ill-health. And the solution lies in increased co-operation among them. India and Nigeria have formed a partnership alliance, and they need to come closer. With Nigeria being rich in natural resources and India making waves in terms of technological know how, there seems to be a plethora of opportunities for collaboration between them. Both need to share experiences on evolving effective strategies for sustainable growth, poverty alleviation, better health care facilities, and literacy for all.” India is a large growing market and looks forward to many more African companies doing business in India.

Our bilateral relations are growing at a satisfactory pace. Nigeria is, today, one of India’s largest trading partners in Africa. New vistas of economic co-operation and investment are opening up. The coming years will witness much growth in investments by Indian companies in Nigeria. As per the Indian investment plans, the companies are likely to invest more than $10 billion especially in the fertilizer, petrochemicals, power, oil and gas.

DEVELOPMENTS IN AGRICULTURE & ALLIED SECTORS: India has made some significant developments in agriculture and food processing sector in the last few decades. Being a major contributor to the country’s economy, agriculture has witnessed prominent advancement in production of food grains, poultry, dairy products, commercial crops and oil seeds. With around 100 million tones of milk production in the year 2006, India reigns supreme throughout the world. India holds great future in the production of horticulture crops including spices, vegetables & fruits, floriculture. The production of fruits witnessed an increase from 52.8 Million tones in 2004-05 to 54.4 Million tones in 2005-06. India’s developmental experience, especially in agriculture, could be of relevance to Nigeria’s development. Nigeria remains a major market for food and agricultural products, with imports worth more than $3.0 billion annually. In Nigeria, demand for cereal by poultry, food processing industries and breweries is high. The cereal sector is becoming commercialized resulting in establishment of big grain markets in different areas. Commercial farming is the future of agriculture in Nigeria. Nigeria’s food and drink industry continues to be one of the most dynamic industries and happens to attract increased foreign investments from leading MNC’s including Nestle and Coca Cola. The government has a vision to take agriculture to new levels by reducing the country’s disturbingly growing dependence on the imported food, specifically milk, dairy products, rice and poultry.

BOTH COUNTRIES ADOPTING ALTERNATE POWER GENERATION: With global warming posing as a greatest threat to the people around the world, alternative stable power generation can prove to be a panacea for rising power problems and a permanent alternate energy source for the future generations Electric power is of fundamental importance to the economic, social and industrial development of any developing country. We need to tap abundant natural resources to bring the much desired transformation in the lives of millions of citizens.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS are the very basis on which shape any country’s present and future depends. It is very aptly regarded as a medium which replaces the physical movement of people across distances. The Nigerian telecommunications sector has made some prominent developments since its deregulation in 1992. With the entry of global leaders like MTN Nigeria, Gloabcom, Celtel Nigeria, Etisalat and MTel, it has emerged as one of the fastest growing telecom industries in the world with a mobile penetration of 20%. The current estimate of mobile users in April 2007 is 38,000,000. Nigeria currently has 42,915 867 million active subscribers and is all set to reach 60 million active subscriber base by end of the year.

The Indian telecommunications is the fastest growing telecommunication market in the world, and the third largest telecom market having a whooping 281.62 million telephone connections till January 2008 to boast of. Both the governmental as well as non governmental sectors jointly share the credit for this tremendous success. India also has the credit of becoming fastest-growing mobile markets in the world. It managed to achieve its target of reaching 250 million telephone subscribers by 2007, two months before stipulated time. Simultaneously, overall tele-density has increased to 24.63 % in January 2008. With the successful entry of new players such as MTNL, Reliance, BPL, Tata Indicom in the high potential Indian telecom market, private sector has become the dominant player, especially in the mobile market. The industry holds a great future for all those who care to seek.

Telecentres are fast emerging as an important tool used by governments to extend the much needed social and economic benefits to those at the lower rung of the ladder in order to reduce the digital divide. They focus on providing easy and wide access to ICT and on developing basic ICT skills to help support the livelihoods of the numerous poor. A new wave of optimism has dawned on Indian villages. The country is witnessing the accelerating growth of telecentres which have the power of bringing a revolution in the lives of the most vulnerable sections and help bridge the digital divide. ICTs have a vital role to play in realising the grand vision of inclusion for all sections of society.

INDIA & NIGERIA— A Force to Reckon With: ———————Nigeria and India need to work together to reverse the existing imbalances in their respective economies and make them more development friendly. There is a strong need to share our experiences on effective and viable strategies for achieving overall development and eliminating poverty, the root cause of all ills. We need greater global and national efforts to increase investment in rural areas to make developing nations become self sufficient and sustain growth and development. We also need to encourage broad based exchanges covering all facets of relationship. Leaders in government, parliament, industry and civil society in both the countries have to commit themselves to making the partnerships work. Co-operation from international organizations like World Bank, FAO, IFAD and UNIDO can be of additional help in this regard.

Indogeria Connect is a sincere endeavor and a platform for sharing information as well as promoting better understanding of the existing relations between the two nations. It aims to kindle and nurture long-term sustainable economic relations. The task of making life mean more for the people lies in co-operation among the two countries. We are confident that Indogeria Connect will give the much desired momentum to the co-operation and friendship of these countries and take it to new heights of achievement.

THE EMERGING IMPORTANCE OF JOINT VENTURES: In today’s world, joint ventures have become a way of life and a viable option for the developing countries to fuel their growth. Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner and both are coming forward to work together for a number of upcoming projects in the near future. An Indian joint venture operating under the name of ONGC MITTAL ENERGY (OMEL is an endeavor which is likely to yield 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day. The company plans to start production by 2010. Similarly, in the same year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) also signed MOU with the Securities and Exchange Commissions of Nigeria and Thailand to ensure regulatory co-operation, mutual assistance and sharing of information with the market watchdogs of the respective countries. With a desire to collaborate with Nigeria for the benefit of both countries, India agreed to invest six billion U.S. dollars in power plants and other projects in Nigeria in the same year. In order to augment the supply of fertiliser in the long run, talks were held for joint ventures for production of urea in Nigeria and some other countries. As part of these efforts, Indian oil and gas group ONGC teamed with steel giant Mittal to build a refinery in Nigeria. GAIL (India) Ltd is looking at sourcing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Nigeria and also acquiring equity stakes in LNG projects in that country.

BOTTOM OF PYRAMID: The bottom of the pyramid is the largest but poorest socio economic group which comprises nearly 4 billion people living on less than $2 per day. There are tough challenges in awareness, affordability, access, and availability. So, only those who are grounded in the reality of these people, who are the middle class of future, can understand their priorities. We need to realise the fact that these people can offer a great potential for the multinational companies. It is high time for the social organisations as well as governments to treat these people at the lower rung of the ladder as their valued consumers and work together to create new local business models. There are innumerable benefits to serve these people as it can go a long way in reducing the growing menace of poverty which is the root cause of all ills of the developing nations. It offers a huge market potential which needs to be tapped to reap high profits for the businesses and the MNCs. The foremost requirement is to have an eye for these growing class of consumers and create the capacity to consume which can be created not just through latest product and process innovations but also by providing access to credit facilities. We should not innovate in isolation. These breakthroughs in innovations need to be shared with the millions of poor to successfully mass market their products. We need to develop efficient distribution systems which are cost effective and assure best quality. We would like to quote examples of companies like CEMEX (the world’s third largest cement company in Mexico) which managed to deliver these innovations to the poor.

Indian economy has successfully adopted various measures to serve “bottom of the pyramid”. To quote an example, there is a growing micro credit market in India which needs to be tapped. So the availability of credit to the poor helps the poor but allows banks to increase their business. Other efforts being eChoupal which helps to eliminate the inefficiencies caused by the corrupt middle men at local rural markets and provides the relative information needed by farmers to help them sell their produce directly to ITC through a wide network of e-choupals. How can we forget to include the case of ICICI Bank in India which has strategically managed to reach the poor through a multi-pronged approach to service provision. This bottom of the pyramid market is huge consisting of some 5 billion people but there a hope for those who are at the bottom of the pyramid. What we need is a deep and more focused analysis on how to reach billions of poor to change this pyramid into a diamond.

We have also made important strides in the fields of information technology, telecommunications, railways and electronics and look forward to much more in the times to come.

Filed under: Connection, India, Nigeria, Power Generation, Relationship