Energy transition: India pledges to collaborate with Nigeria
By Adewale Sanyaolu
The India High Commission in Nigeria has assured of the country’s preparedness to collaborate with the Nigeria energy sector in ensuring its smooth energy transition agenda.
India High Commissioner to Nigeria, Shri G. Balasubramanian, stated this while on a tour of the Indian pavilion atjust concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG)Energy Week Conference and Exhibition 2023 in Abuja.
He said that India is playing a good role in renewable energybecause it has some expertise in that area and plans to collaborate with Nigeria in that regard, adding that there are huge opportunities for bothcountries to leverage on.
According to him , the country is excited to participate at this year’s NOG because India has a good number of participation withabout 48 exhibitors this year, an increase compared to last year’s conference.
“The layout is very organised and easy to navigate. The exhibitors have very good and prime positions whichwould help them in attracting more customers to their products and serviceswhich they’re exhibiting. In all, I believe that this is a very well organised exhibition,” Shri G. Balasubramanian stated
He said thatIndian companies exhibiting are well grounded and technological driven companies with quality and affordable products and services, trusting that they will find business opportunities in Nigeria.
Speaking on growth of the Indian economy , he affirmed that innovation , investment banking and technology are key drivers of India economic growth.
He noted that in the past few years, a lot of innovations are taking place in the country through which the economy has been propelled from where it was to where it is today .
‘’ For us, we still believe there is a long way to go,We are still an emerging economyand there is still needfor the government to continue to support innovations , Fintechs and new startups .
For example, in two years, we have had more than 100 unicorn startups, a unicorn is a startup company that has an asset value of $1 billion and more that 5,000 thousandstartups have being created in about four to five years now.
We are heavily investing in agriculture, pharmaceutical, energy and we are willing to collaborate more with Nigeria on many fronts. This NOGexhibition is to showcase the technology and innovation from India for our mutual benefit’’ he stated.