NEW DELHI, India – The Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of India have resolved to rebuild and expand bilateral commercial ties toward their historical peak of $15 billion, with the Indian government seeking renewed and sustained off-take of Nigerian crude oil while Abuja pushes for direct industrial investments across manufacturing, defense, and digital technologies, the State House announced on Monday, September 14, 2026.
The strategic commitment was reached during high-level bilateral deliberations between Vice President Kashim Shettima, GCON, and Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi conducted on the sidelines of the just-concluded 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, India.
Okay News reports that official trade figures disclosed by the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh, indicated that bilateral trade between both nations stood at approximately $14.95 billion during the 2021–2022 financial year before experiencing a steep contraction driven by reduced Indian purchases of Nigerian crude petroleum.
The total trade volume dropped to $7.13 billion during the 2024–2025 fiscal cycle, before recovering to approximately $9 billion in 2025–2026, prompting both governments to establish concrete mechanisms to recover lost commercial ground.
Making a formal diplomatic case during the meeting, Prime Minister Modi noted that renewed long-term crude purchase agreements with Nigeria would serve as the most immediate vehicle to restore bilateral trade volume back to historical highs, while expressing profound gratitude to Nigeria for hosting and safeguarding its resident Indian community.
Responding to the proposal, Vice President Shettima, who represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, at the summit, confirmed that Nigeria will examine the energy supply request within the framework of national economic priorities designed to expand domestic productive capacity.
“Nigeria would examine the request as part of broader efforts by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to attract investment and build strategic partnerships capable of expanding the country’s productive capacity,” Shettima stated.
The Vice President maintained that the administration is determined to re-engineer Nigeria’s commercial architecture with international allies, moving away from extractive commodity trade toward capital investments that generate industrial value addition locally.
“The President Tinubu administration is particularly interested in moving Nigeria’s relationship with India beyond the traditional exchange of commodities towards investments that support domestic production and value addition,” Shettima affirmed, identifying pharmaceuticals, localized defense manufacturing, digital technology ecosystems, and the creative industries as priority areas for joint ventures.
The bilateral negotiations also explored expanded collaboration in renewable energy, power transmission infrastructure, healthcare technology, financial technology, and capacity building, leveraging both nations’ shared advances in digital public infrastructure.
Providing institutional perspective on social inclusion during the summit engagements, the Minister of Women Affairs, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, stated that Nigeria is actively adapting India’s women-led self-help group model to accelerate grassroots financial inclusion through the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim explained that the initiative organizes Women Affinity Groups to provide female entrepreneurs with direct access to finance, market linkages, and technical skills, while reinforcing state interventions against Sexual and Gender-Based Violence.
“Women’s economic empowerment is fundamental to our ambition of building a $1 trillion economy,” the minister emphasized. “We must deliberately bring millions more Nigerian women into productive economic activity.”
Both leaders concluded the bilateral engagement by agreeing to intensify institutional interactions through the India-Africa partnership framework, with private-sector business delegations scheduled to convene follow-up investment sessions in Abuja to execute concrete agreements.
