Shettima Returns To Nigeria After BRICS Summit In India

Vice President Kashim Shettima has returned to Nigeria after representing President Bola Tinubu at the 18th BRICS Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, India, where he held high-level talks aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s economic and diplomatic ties with India and other BRICS members and partners.

Shettima’s return on Tuesday followed his participation in the summit’s high-level sessions and a series of bilateral engagements focused on trade, investment, energy, technology, healthcare and other strategic sectors.

A major highlight of his visit was his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which both leaders discussed efforts to revive bilateral trade, including renewed Indian purchases of Nigerian crude oil.

The meeting came against the backdrop of a significant decline in trade between the two countries. Bilateral trade, which reached about $14.95 billion in the 2021–2022 financial year, fell to $7.13 billion in 2024–2025 before recovering to about $9 billion in 2025–2026.

Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh, had disclosed the figures, attributing much of the decline to reduced Indian purchases of Nigerian crude.

Modi consequently pushed for renewed crude purchases from Nigeria, arguing that stronger energy cooperation could help restore bilateral commercial exchanges to previous levels.

Responding, Shettima said Nigeria would consider the request as part of the Tinubu administration’s broader efforts to attract investment and build strategic partnerships capable of expanding the country’s productive capacity.

The Vice President, however, stressed that Nigeria wanted to move beyond a relationship centred largely on commodity exchanges.

He identified pharmaceuticals, defence, digital technology and the creative industries as priority areas, noting that partnerships with India should create jobs, facilitate skills and technology transfer and expand opportunities for Nigeria’s youthful population.

The two leaders also explored cooperation in renewable and clean energy, power, healthcare, financial technology and other emerging sectors.

Shettima said the administration was particularly interested in partnerships that would support domestic production and value addition rather than simply facilitate the exchange of commodities.

The Vice President also met with the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, where he reaffirmed Nigeria’s commitment to multilateralism and efforts to build a more inclusive global economic order.

At the BRICS summit, Shettima delivered Tinubu’s message advocating reforms to global governance and international financial institutions.

He also positioned Nigeria as a gateway to Africa’s growing market under the African Continental Free Trade Area, while seeking deeper cooperation with BRICS member and partner countries in agriculture, artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, manufacturing, healthcare, energy and human-capital development.

The Federal Government also used the engagement to draw lessons from India’s women-led self-help group model.

Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, said Nigeria was adapting the model through the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale-Up and its Women Affinity Groups to improve women’s access to finance, skills and markets.

She said expanding women’s participation in productive economic activity was central to the government’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

“Women’s economic empowerment is fundamental to our ambition of building a $1 trillion economy. We must deliberately bring millions more Nigerian women into productive economic activity,” the minister said.

Modi also expressed appreciation for Nigeria’s hospitality towards the sizeable Indian community living and doing business in the country.

Both countries agreed that stronger private-sector participation would be critical to the next phase of their relationship, particularly in sectors where Indian firms have expertise and Nigerian demand remains substantial.

The two sides further committed to sustaining high-level political and economic engagement through the India-Africa partnership framework and other multilateral platforms.

Politics Nigeria reported that Shettima departed for New Delhi, India on Friday as Nigeria sought to deepen economic partnerships and strengthen its strategic engagement with emerging global powers.