
India’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Abuja, 2024. MEA INDIA / FLICKR.
THE MINISTRY OF WORLD AFFAIRS / NIGERIA-INDIA DESK
A New Era of Nigeria-India Relations?

India’s Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi and Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Abuja, 2024. MEA INDIA / FLICKR.
THE MINISTRY OF WORLD AFFAIRS / NIGERIA-INDIA DESK
A New Era of Nigeria-India Relations?
At the invitation of president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was in Abuja, Nigeria, on 16 and 17 November 2024. Arriving at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Modi was warmly received by the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mr Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, who presented Modi with the golden ‘Key to the City’ of Abuja, as a mark of honour and recognition.
The second day of Prime Minister Modi’s visit was nothing short of memorable for the Indian statesman at the Nigerian Presidential Villa. He was ushered into the State House by bagpipers. He was accorded red-carpet treatment, a 21-gun salute and the ceremonial guard of honour. A high point of Modi’s visit to the Villa was President Tinubu’s conferment of Nigeria’s second-highest national honour—the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON)—on the Indian prime minister. In the history of Nigeria’s bestowal of national honours, Modi is the second foreign dignitary to receive the GCON, the first being Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1969. Before leaving Abuja for Rio de Janeiro to attend the 19th G20 Summit, Modi delivered an electrifying address to elated nationals from the roughly 60,000-member Indian community in Nigeria.
What is the importance of Modi’s visit to Nigeria-India relations? Was Modi’s trip to Nigeria a calculated geostrategic move amidst United States, Russia and China’s great power tussles in Africa? What are the existing opportunities and challenges faced in the dynamics of Nigeria-India bilateral relations? These and other questions have been on the lips of many international affairs observers.
NIGERIA AND INDIA: TWO COUNTRIES WITH COMPELLING SIMILARITIES
The Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of India are regional powers geographically located in Africa and Asia respectively. Though the two continents are kept apart by the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the commonalities between Nigeria and India have brought both countries closer in their enduring bilateral relationships. Nigeria and India are multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multilingual countries with a federal structure, a shared vision of economic prosperity, and faced with common challenges of terrorism, separatism, drug trafficking and climate change. Historically, both countries were colonies in the British Empire; in fact, Frederick Lugard, who served as the first British governor-general of Nigeria (following the amalgamation of the Protectorates of Northern and Southern Nigeria on New Year’s Day in 1914) was born in India.
With a population of over 220 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s largest democracy and most populous country. Nigeria is also the sixth most populous country in the world. With a population of over 1.4 billion people, India is not only the world’s largest democracy but also the world’s most populous country. Though Nigeria and India are often regarded as developing economies, the two countries are economic powerhouses with India ranked as the fifth-largest economy in the world with a nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $3.94 trillion and Nigeria is Africa’s fourth-largest economy with its GDP a little over $250 billion. In the entertainment industry, India’s Bollywood and Nigeria’s Nollywood have consistently been amongst the top largest film industries in the world by production volume. Also noteworthy is the similarity in Nigerian and Indian food. Jollof rice (eaten in Nigeria and the West African sub-region) is similar to India’s thakkali sadam. Another similarity is Nigeria’s amala to India’s ragi mudde.
In international relations, Nigeria and India are member states of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). Over the years, Nigeria has played leadership roles in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as India has done in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). With such credentials, both countries are aspirants for a permanent seat in the event of the reform of the United Nations Security Council.
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THE TRAJECTORY OF NIGERIA-INDIA RELATIONS
Sharkdam Wapmuk, an associate professor at the Nigerian Deference Academy and a researcher on Nigeria’s international relations, notes that relations between the Eagle (Nigeria) and the Elephant (India) began in the first half of the 20th century. In 1919, Sindhi traders from British India arrived by sea in Lagos, already a commercial centre of Nigeria, where they opened retail businesses. Like the Sindhi traders, the Indian businessman, Kishinchand Chellaram, established his textile business in Lagos in 1923 which has evolved into Chellarams Plc, a sizeable Nigerian corporation. Today, more than 200 Indian businesses operate in Nigeria with approximately $27 billion in investment in the Nigerian economy so far. These businesses include household names such as Airtel (mobile services), Tata (automobile), Kewalram Chanrai Group (formerly textiles, now soya oil, automobile distribution et alia), and Dana Group (aviation, plastics, pharmaceuticals, etc.). Indian businesses in Nigeria pride themselves as the second largest employers of labour in the country after the federal government.
On 20 November 1958, India opened its diplomatic office in Lagos—two years before Nigeria attained its political independence from Britain. Since the early 1960s, several Indian leaders and ministers have visited Nigeria and vice versa. In September 1962, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, came to Nigeria on a state visit and met with Nigeria’s first prime minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. However, it was not until the state visit of Indian’s 13th prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, in October 2007 that both countries’ relations advanced to a strategic partnership, a milestone in the trajectory of Nigeria-India relations. For Nigeria, President Shehu Shagari and President Olusegun Obasanjo were guests in India for the country’s Republic Day celebration in January 1983 and January 2000 respectively.
In security and intelligence relations, Nigeria-India military ties date back to the 1960s where, interestingly, the first commandant of the prestigious Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna State, was Indian: Brigadier M. R. Varma (1964-1969). Since Nigeria and India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation in October 2007, the two countries have collaborated in areas such as maritime security and personnel training. As part of international efforts to combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, the Indian naval ship INS Tarkash conducted a joint maritime exercise with the Nigerian naval ships, NNS Kano, Osun, Sokoto, and Nguru from 12 to 13 September 2022. Beginning on 13 October 2023, INS Sumedha made a three-day port call at the Western Naval Command Headquarters in Apapa, Lagos, to enhance the interoperability of both naval squads.
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India, in the 21st century, has several soft power resources at its disposal in its relations with Nigeria. Like the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China, India is a destination country for young Nigerians seeking higher education, some of whom are recipients of Indian scholarships. Moreover, India has increasingly become a destination for Nigerian patients seeking medical treatment abroad. Several reasons have been identified for Nigerians’ medical tourism to India, which includes the systemic decay in Nigeria’s health sector, Nigerians’ preference for foreign healthcare, the affordable medical treatment in India, the perceived higher standard of hospitals in the Asian country, India’s qualified specialists with hands-on experience, and the higher degree of cutting-edge technology and diagnostic facilities in India. Since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020, India in pursuit of its vaccine diplomacy, supported the Nigerian government in fighting the viral disease. On 26 March 2021 for example, India donated 100,000 doses of Covishield vaccine to Nigeria. Again, in January 2022, Nigeria received 5.742 million doses of the Indian-made vaccine.
In entertainment, India is winning the hearts of Nigerians through Bollywood. The television station Zee World Africa has a growing Nigerian viewership, some of whom find Indian cultures appealing. Presently, Nigerians are increasingly familiar with the Indian greeting ‘Namaste’, the tradition of Karva Chauth, and festivals such as Diwali, Holi and Dussehra. Furthermore, Zee World Africa has, since 2022, organized the dance competition ‘Dance Naija Dance’, employing both Nigerian and Indian music in the contest. A rich blend of Nigerian and Indian cultures also came about recently on Netflix in the film Namaste Wahala (2021), and the series ‘Postcards’ (2024).
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MODI’S VISIT: THE OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES IN NIGERIA-INDIA RELATIONS
Nigeria and India have had a cordial bilateral relationship for more than six decades. Nigeria, being the first leg in Modi’s three-state trip (Nigeria, Brazil and Guyana), was not only historic, but significant, seeing that the last state visit by an Indian prime minister to Nigeria was 17 years ago. Furthermore, it was timely and important as both countries needed to deepen their strategic partnership. On his official X (formerly Twitter) account, Tinubu stated that during a fruitful bilateral session at Aso Rock, he and Modi identified culture, defence, mining, customs, and education to be the promising areas for enhanced collaboration and cooperation. It, therefore, did not come as a surprise that Nigeria and India signed three MoUs on cultural exchange, customs cooperation and survey cooperation. In Africa, India is no match for its Asian neighbour China concerning trade, investments and influence. However, Modi’s state visit to Nigeria, the self-acclaimed ‘Giant of Africa’, could be seen as a strategic move by India in its engagement with the continent. It sent a message that India remains a player in foreign powers’ competition for influence in Africa.
Before, during, and after Modi visited Nigeria, international relations scholars and analysts alike examined the opportunities that abound, and the challenges faced in the dynamics of Nigeria-India relations. At a people-to-people level lie opportunities in sports and music. While football is popular in Nigeria, India is well known for cricket. Both countries can learn a thing or two in developing the sports of cricket and football as national sports. Globally, Afrobeats has become a trending music genre. In May 2023, Nigerian music sensation Rema performed some of his hit songs like ‘Clam Down’ in New Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, Telangana. Most recently, in 2024, Rema was in India to perform at a wedding. Nigeria can build on the love for Afrobeats in India vis-à-vis Nigerian and Indian music artistes’ collaboration.
At a policy and structural level, the underexplored areas in Nigeria-India relations remain the agricultural and health sectors, the extractive industry, and defence and space cooperation. Despite having sizable arable land, food insecurity has been a lingering problem in Nigeria. India is currently the world’s largest exporter of rice. India’s expertise in rice farming can go a long way in assisting Nigeria to achieve food sufficiency. Currently, the Nigerian health sector not only lacks adequate medical facilities and state-of-the-art technology but is also experiencing a brain drain. Here, India can step in and complement the efforts of Nigeria’s federal government to provide affordable healthcare services in the country. Aside from crude oil in Nigeria (in fact, ONGC Videsh Limited—a subsidiary of India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)—bid for oil blocks in the 2000s), Nigeria is blessed with other national resources such as bitumen, limestone, zinc, tin, iron ore, coal and gold. In Africa, Jindal Steel & Power is an Indian company with an interest in coal. Such an Indian company will be good to have on Nigerian soil vis-à-vis boosting coal extraction in the country.
In September 2023, Nigeria gave the green light for a $1 billion deal with India to help the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) become 40 per cent self-sufficient in the local production of military equipment in three years. While this is a welcome development, India, an emerging arms exporter in Asia, can seize the opportunity of Nigeria’s need for cost-effective military equipment in combating terrorism and insurgent groups to market and possibly make arms sales to Nigeria. It is no longer news that India is a fast-rising space power in the Global South. On 23 August 2023, India’s spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 successfully touched down on the south pole region of the moon, making India the first country in the world to accomplish that. Riding on the back of this achievement, India launched the spacecraft Aditya-L1 to observe the sun on 02 September 2023; it reached its final destination on 06 January 2024. In the spirit of South-South cooperation, Nigeria in its national interest should deepen its existing space cooperation with India.
Nevertheless, with a long-lasting bilateral relationship over the years, several issues are bound to surface in Nigeria-India relations. In 2011, the Nigeria Customs Service arrested 17 Indians for allegedly attempting to illegally export four containers loaded with scrap metals from Lagos, Nigeria. In 2013, Nigeria-India relations became tense following the killing of a Nigerian in Goa State, India, which sparked a protest by angry Nigerians in Goa. That year, illegal Nigerian immigration was a concern and the perception of Nigerians as drug traffickers by some in Goa State led to signs that read ‘No to Nigerians, No to Drugs’. Needless to mention is the allegation that an Indian school in Ilupeju, Lagos, denies Nigerians admission, which the Lagos State government ordered a probe into in 2024.
Reviewing Nigeria-India economic relations suggests that there are more Indian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria than there are Nigerian SMEs in India. The elephant in the room is that a chunk of Nigeria’s exports to India is crude oil. To meet the energy demand of its growing population, India imports crude from oil-rich countries such as Nigeria. This has resulted in a trade imbalance between both countries, in favour of Nigeria. However, in recent years, the Nigeria-India trade value has fallen from $14.95 billion (2021-2022) to $7.89 billion (2023-2024), owing to a drop in India’s demand for Nigerian energy.
No doubt, Modi’s visit to Nigeria promises to be mutually beneficial to Nigeria and India in the near future. However, this all depends on both countries truly taking their bilateral cooperation to the next level and implementing the newly signed MoUs in the coming years⎈
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