India-Nigeria Ties Shift From Trade To Strategic Partnership
India and Nigeria are widening a relationship once driven largely by oil and commerce, with $9 billion in bilateral trade, growing pharmaceutical investment and deeper cooperation in defence, technology, health and food security now defining the partnership.
India’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh, said, the relationship has evolved into a strategic partnership with cooperation extending beyond traditional trade.
Singh said bilateral trade rose from $7.13 billion in 2024–25 to about $9 billion in 2025-26. More than 200 Indian companies operate in Nigeria, employing nearly 100,000 Nigerians, he said.
Defence and security are also gaining ground, with India training Nigerian military personnel and cooperating with Nigeria on counter-terrorism, intelligence sharing and maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea.
The partnership is equally expanding in energy, agriculture, digital technology and pharmaceuticals.
According to the Deputy High Commissioner, Ms Vertika Rawat, India supplies about 40% of Nigeria’s pharmaceutical imports, exceeding 90% in some categories.
Indian companies have also invested about $4 billion in pharmaceutical manufacturing in Nigeria.
Rawat linked the pharmaceutical partnership to India’s own healthcare experience, citing its latest National Family Health Survey, which covered 679,000 households across 790 districts.
She said the survey recorded antenatal care at 96%, institutional deliveries at 90.6%, while child stunting fell from 35.5% to 29.3%.
Health insurance coverage also rose to 60.2%.
India is now offering to share lessons from its Ayushman Bharat health programme as Nigeria pursues wider health coverage.
With trade climbing, Indian companies manufacturing locally and cooperation moving into healthcare, security and technology, the relationship is increasingly about what India and Nigeria can build together, not simply what they can trade.
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