India surpasses US as Nigeria's biggest export market

25 Jun 2012 Evaluate

India has surpassed US to become Nigeria’s biggest export market according to Trade Statistics released by Africa’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This will be seen as a major development in trade relation between India and Nigeria.

The NBS data showed that in the first quarter of 2012, trade between India and Nigeria had reached to an amount of $5.15 billion, with Nigeria's exports to India touching $4.2 billion, compared to $3.7 billion credited to the US for the same period. Nigeria's export to India mainly includes crude oil and cashew nuts whereas India exports pharmaceutical goods, machinery, electronics and rice. The US was followed by the Netherlands with $2.9 billion, trailed by Spain with $2.4 billion and Brazil at $2 billion.

The trade figure clearly shows that there exists a high trade deficit of $3.7 billion between India and Nigeria, which both countries need to ensure that more Indian product are to be exported to Nigeria so that the momentum of growth in bilateral trade can be maintained.

High Commissioner to Nigeria Mahesh Sachdev said if this growth trend persists India can be emerged as the Nigeria’s largest trading partner. Recently, India permitted global unrestricted exports of agricultural product such as wheat, rice, sugar, milk powder and other essential goods to Nigeria. It is further expected that Nigerian stake-holders would take necessary steps to import goods from India, which will promote a more balanced bilateral trade.

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