India is one of the world’s leaders in Digital Economy especially ICT development with significant contributions to the GDP. How much of this digital investment has India made in Nigeria?
There is a digital innovation we call the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) which has enabled digital transactions among Indian citizens and citizens of other countries when they go from one country to the other. Let say for instance there are many students coming from Nigeria to India and there are many businessmen coming from India to Nigeria these people will be in the position to use UPI for their transactions. We have done 8.9 billion transactions with this UPI and it borders on ICT. It is most useful for citizens when they are traveling and useful for the trade. India is willing to deepen investment on this area in Nigeria.
In addition to Indian investment in ICT, there are companies in the software side which are working in Nigeria in developing the infrastructure as well as the technical requirements for these businesses. For example, the Blue Line from Lagos to Ibadan, there is an Indian company that is known for providing the solution for ticketing and passenger services.
Secondly, Airtel, which is the second largest telecommunications outfit in Nigeria, is an Indian company. Only recently, the chairman of Airtel met with the President BolaTinubu. Airtel has invested more than $4 billion dollars in telecommunications in Nigeria and ICT is also part of it. There are many other Indian companies working here in the software sector and we are hopeful and confident that ICT will be the next economic frontier that will establish investments in larger areas apart from the traditional areas in which we are present.
Additionally, acccording to reports in 2023 alone, from January till the end of May, the total investment in ICT in Nigeria has reached the tune of 16 million out of which 4.5 million was made by Indian companies. That is 8% and it promises to be more.
Last year, the Nigeria-India Business Council (NIBC) was launched with emphasis on boosting renewable energy, oil and gas, fintech, Artificial intelligence and green agriculture. Can you throw more light on the current situation with the NIBC?
In many of these sectors work has already started. On green agriculture Nigeria and India are working on the International Millet Initiative. According to the United Nations 2023 is the International Year of Millet. We partner with the Nigerian Millet Initiative because this crop can grow in a very harsh condition and it does not need much water. Nigeria is the largest producer of Millet in Africa and Indian is the largest producer of Millet in the world. We have many startups and many Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO). So, the Nigeria Millet Initiative and India have joined hands to increase Millet production in Nigeria so that there can be more money in the hands of farmers.
We are also working on sugarcane, rice and others. Some of the Indian companies have even started palm oil farms. So these are some of the areas we are already working on and we hope that by the second edition of the NIBC which we are planning for August, we will be able to consolidate the progress that has been made and open new vistas.
Nigeria and India have over the years collaborated on defense and security. However, Nigeria is bedeviled by protracted terrorism and other forms of violent agitations. What strategy do you think Nigeria must adopt to curb these crises?
The security architecture of any country is an internal issue. However, India has been offering Nigerians training, capacity building including in the area of defense. We offer more than 150 scholarships every year for military officers, the police and others. We have a specialized training program for law enforcement agencies which have gone to India and got knowledge on how India has experienced security challenges and how we have overcome that.
So, training is something that we are more than happy to do and we will continue to do so. I can give you an example. A team of Indian army officers had come to Nigeria; they stayed in Jaji for about six months and impacted training to many people in the armed forces on anti-terrorism and counterinsurgency. So, training and capacity building are what we will be more than happy to share with Nigeria.
The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) has offered training to about 500 Nigerians annually for capacity building. As more Nigerians aspire to participate in the programme, do you have plans to increase the number?
Given the strong relationship that India has with Nigeria and given the fact that historically capacity building is one of the strong points of our bilateral relations, India is certainly open to expanding this cooperation with Nigeria. There is this issue of 500 scholarships for short term training given to Nigerians in Indian institutions. The ITEC started in 1964 and you can imagine the number of Nigerians that have actually benefited from the programme which run into thousands bringing specific changes within the system.
In addition to the ITEC we have also provided more than 4836 scholarships to students in various universities for their online education. So training and capacity building is one area that we are strong and we are certainly going to expand this cooperation especially as we draw closer to the G20 Summit that will be hosted by India for which we have invited Nigeria.
