India's investment in Nigeria hits $13 billion

THE Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, has said that the trade investments of Indians in Nigeria have reached $13 billion, within the last two years.Specifically, he said in the last quarter of 2010, Indian companies invested $5 billion in the Nigerian economy, through the acquisition of Zain operations by Bharti Airtel.Mahesh, who said the trade relationship between the two countries have been robust and relatively balanced, noted that India, with a population of about 35,000 people in Nigeria, has remained the second largest employer of labour after the Federal Government.'Indian companies in Nigeria are second largest in terms of employment of Nigerians. The first is Federal Government in terms of employment, while the second is Indian community and Indian-based companies taken together. Among the sectors where Indians invested are steel, power, tourism and pharmaceuticals.'Sachdev, who disclosed this recently in Lagos, while delivering the keynote address at the third West African Information and Communications Technology Congress (WAFICT), said that the India-Nigeria relationship is significant as there are just about 35,000 Indians in Nigeria, about 0.2 per cent of the total Nigeria population.According to him, India is still seeking more ways to boost bilateral and financial ties with Nigeria. The Indian high commissioner also hinted that besides the country's investment in areas of the economy including telecommunications, health, steel and tourism, it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with some Nigerian firms to build two power plants at the cost of $3.8 billion.While urging Nigeria's telecommunications sector to take a cue from India, Sachdev said the sector has in the last few years contributed about $96.1 billion to Indian economy, stressing that two-third of it was gained from export of Information Communication Technology (ICT) services to other countries.He added that the growth, which has been 19 per cent year-on-year basis, could also be attributed to the contribution of about 6.1 per cent of the ICT sector to Indian's gross domestic product.He said the country's ICT sector was able to perform satisfactorily because of innovation and market diversification initiatives put up by both the regulator and the operators, stressing that the country plans to raise its rural teledensity to 60 per cent by 2017.According to him, through the right policy framework, improved infrastructure, between 2000 and 2011, India was able to increase its mobile phone subscription from 33 million to 850 million.
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