Distinguished Ministers,
Governors, Vice-Governors,
The leadership of NIBC,
Ladies and gentlemen,
It's a great pleasure to be here with all of you, not least because I've been described as an honest man. But this is the first visit of a Foreign Minister from India to Nigeria. If you are wondering why, so am I. But I do think it's an occasion to reflect, those of us who are involved in diplomacy, foreign policy, politics. To reflect not just on what we did or we did not do or we could have done, but really looking forward, what differently can we do to take this relationship.
I've been here for two days. This is my third day. I'm leaving immediately after this engagement. And I want to share with you that in the course of these three days, this is my third business event. I've also done two community events. And I mention that because to me it is really the business and the community, the Indian community, which is the true strength of the relationship. So, let me begin first of all by saluting those who even when perhaps they weren't as many political level exchanges as there should be, who kept the flag flying high, who kept doing the business, who in different ways have built up what is an enormously important relationship.
There are different ways of describing this relationship. But to a business audience and to a policy audience, it is the relationship today of about 13 to 15 billion dollars worth of trade annually, where India has committed somewhere between 27 to 30 billion dollars of investment, where Nigeria is our premier economic partner in Africa. But having said that, I would also urge you not to be satisfied, to look at the potential. I was reminding some folks yesterday, that India's exports in the year that has just been completed was 766 billion dollars. And I'd surely like, and I'm sure you would surely like, a larger part of that share to come to Nigeria. Because today we are a 4 trillion dollar economy, an economy with a range of capabilities and technologies and experiences and practices, which we perhaps did not have in earlier years, and which really today provide the basis for a more serious interaction.
What can we, from the side of the government do, to really build up the business relationship even more strongly? I think our primary responsibility is to improve the enabling environment, to look at the kind of problems that I've been hearing about in the last two days. Banking, insurance, credit guarantees, flight connections, trade settlements. I think these are challenges today that we should put on the table, approach it very honestly, and look to find constructive, practical solutions. I'm also very pleased today to see my ministerial colleagues from the Nigerian government, because yesterday I had the honor to meet the Minister for the Blue Economy. And I mention this because, in many ways, if we are to give this relationship more weight and substance and practicality, we should get beyond the world of protocol and diplomacy. Not look at it in a very narrow sense, but really to get down to business and look at different parts of our economy and of our government and of our policy making and see, where is it that we can build the connect. So, even though I'm a Foreign Minister, I urge all of you really to look beyond the foreign policy establishment, to build the linkages which will really take our relationship to a new level.
Now, having spoken about India-Nigeria, let me make a larger point in respect of Africa. Africa is rising, and India is betting on Africa's rise. We are betting on Africa's rise because, by any objective assessment, today there is so much growing for Africa in terms of demography, in terms of resources, in terms of ambition, in terms of, increasingly, of policy alignments. That clearly potent, a very different, much more positive future in the very short term.
Now, we are betting on Africa because, as the president of NIBC reminded us, we have a shared past, not always a happy history, not between us, but between us and some other people. But it is a history which has engendered an enormous solidarity. And that solidarity today makes me say very clearly that for us, when we speak about a changing global order, we clearly, today, India, as I said, the most populous country in the world, the fifth largest economy, a four trillion dollar approximate GDP. For us, the reordering of the world, the rebalancing, the multipolarity of the world will not be complete until Africa takes its due place. And we speak of it often, certainly in the diplomatic world, in terms of, you know, there will be reform of the United Nations, who will have a seat, how will it go, and all of that is very important. But I would say to all of you that rebalancing, reordering a new global order will only happen when the core of it is economic, which is the rise of Africa has to be the economic rise of Africa.
Now, that obviously presents choices, because it is very difficult to go up in the global order by being a market for others or just by being a provider of resources. So, the value that India brings, and it's a value today, I think, which is reflected in the room and in the conversations that will happen, which is, how do we today invest in Africa, how do we manufacture in Africa, how do we produce in Africa, how do we value add in Africa. And I suggest to you, ladies and gentlemen, that is really the value, you know, that is the special nature of the relationship today between India and Africa. That we are prepared today to partner in this range of activities, of production, of value add, of research, of localisation, of the employment which will come with it. And of addressing the socio-economic needs, which are very similar to us. We are all on the same journey today, some of us are a little bit ahead, but, you know, at the end of the day, everything that we are going through currently and we have been through and we will go through are exactly what is your journey as well.
So, my message to you today is, at a time, especially after the COVID, when we have all discovered the dangers of depending on faraway geographies for our basic needs, because we all had that anxiety for those years, when everything which we assumed global trade will provide very smoothly, did not arrive on our shores. But today, if there is a push for local production, for, as I said, greater value add, if we need more resilient and reliable supply chains, if we have to share technology, India is your partner. And these are not nice words to be said at a conference. The proof of our commitment are in 200 development projects across the continent and another 70-80 which are underway. It is there in relevant experiences today that even as we are looking at investments and collaboration, these should not be rooted in the past. They must look at the sectors which will matter, at digital public infrastructure, at green and clean growth, at water, at agricultural sustainability and security, at the blue economy. These are really today the areas where we believe that our partnership can grow.
So, as I said, this is very much for us the core of a relationship of the Global South. Global South for us is certainly a phrase, it is a sentiment from the heart. But most of all, it is a set of policies, especially economic and development policies, with which we extend our hand to Nigeria, to Africa. I am very thankful today that this conference has provided me an opportunity to share some of these sentiments with you. I thank NIBC and its partners. I wish the conference all success. Thank you very much.