Nigeria, India bilateral trade at $8.7 billion

Abuja: India will intensify efforts to correct the yawning imbalance in bilateral trade with Nigeria. India is major importer of Nigerian crude and the balance of payments is skewed heavily in Nigeria's favour.

Speaking in capital city Abuja on the occasion of India's Republic Day celebrations Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mahesh Sachdev, said, ''Bilateral trade between Nigeria and India according to Indian figures for the year ended 31 March 2010 is $8.7 billion.''

According to Sachdev, India was''…Nigeria's second largest trading partner and Nigeria is our largest trading partner in Africa.''

Reeling out statistics of trade relations between the two countries, Sachdev stated that ''Nigerian exports is around $7.3 billion and Indian export to Nigeria is around $1.2 billion so the trade between our two countries is greatly in Nigeria's favour and Nigeria enjoys the trade surplus of $6 billion.''

He said Nigerian crude oil exports to India was the biggest contributor and that other contributions were not very significant, since about $7.1 billion dollars' worth of oil was exported to India.

Indian exports to Nigeria include petroleum products, pharmaceuticals, steel, automotive equipment and miscellaneous items.

Sachdev said his country would intensify efforts to correct the trade imbalance between the two countries.

''We would like Nigerians to buy more from India. Deficit of $6 billion is not the right thing for us to have. We need the Nigerian crude but Nigeria needs many things they can get from India at affordable cost with affordable level of technology,'' he said.