Indian Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari will be visiting Nigeria from 26-29 September, 2016 at the invitation of Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President of Nigeria. He will be accompanied by Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State for Finance and four members of Parliament, senior officials and media.
India-Nigeria relations have traditionally been friendly and the bilateral partnership was elevated to strategic partnership in 2007. India is Nigeria’s largest global trading partner and Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner in Africa with the bilateral trade amounting to US $ 12.6 billion in 2015-16.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the vice president will meet the president and vice president of Nigeria, and will deliver an address at the National Defence College. While in Lagos, the vice president will meet the Governor of Lagos and deliver an address at the Joint Business Forum and the University of Lagos.
From September 29-30, the delegation will visit Mali, which will be the first ever high-level Indian visit to the country. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the visit is intended to “further strengthen the relationship between the two countries and explore new areas of cooperation to expand and diversify the bilateral relationship”. India and Mali bilateral trade has shown almost trebled in the last five years to reach US$ 350.72 million in 2015-16.