India-Nigeria Business Forum to boost trade and investment

About 400 leading Indian companies and business players are expected to participate in an exhibition and business forum to be held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, by the end of this year.     

The exhibition and forum are being organised by industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce (FICCI) with its Nigerian counterpart.    

Sheila Sudharan, a senior director of the FICCI, said the event would strengthen partnership between the two chambers in the automotive, pharmaceutical, healthcare, education, energy, agriculture and agricultural processing sectors.     

"We want to take advantage of the business opportunities offered by Nigeria," she said.    

India-Nigeria bilateral trade stood at $13 billion in 2008. The figure represented an increase of about $5 billion over that of 2007.    

Trade between the two countries has so far been dominated by crude oil imports from Nigeria and Indian exports of information technology accessories, auto and machinery.     

According to the head of the Indian Chancery in Lagos Raj Kumar, India has pledged to support Nigerian agriculture with machinery and personnel.Kumar also said ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), is likely to get back two highly prospective deep-water oil blocks in Nigeria, which now are caught in litigation.    

Another Indian company, the Indorama Group, had won the bid as core investor in Nigeria’s Eleme Petrochemical Company Ltd (EPCL) in 2005. Indorama hopes to make the complex the petrochemical hub of Africa and meet the growing demand for plastics in the region.     About 30,000 Indians live in Nigeria and are engaged in trading and manufacturing.