Africa’s largest economy plans to join the BRICS countries in the next two years ━ The European Conservative

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s largest economy, appears to be looking to the emerging East and the Global South to strengthen its global strategic alliances and increase its international influence.

As part of a new foreign policy initiative aimed at strengthening its influence over key global organizations, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar says his country aims to join the BRICS group, which is adding six new members early next year over the next two years. He added that he believes Nigeria meets the criteria not only for BRICS+ membership but also for the G-20, Bloomberg reported.

“Nigeria must belong to groups like BRICS, G20 and all other blocs because if there is a certain criterion, namely that the countries with the largest population and economic weight should be included, then why is Nigeria not one of them?” asked the Foreign Minister and continued:

Nigeria will join all open groups as long as the intentions are good, benevolent and clearly defined, as the country has reached the age of deciding for itself who its partners are and where they should be.

The foreign minister’s statements come just days after Nigerian President Bola Tinubu attended the G20 Agreement with Africa (CwA) in Berlin, Germany, where he joined leaders from more than a dozen African countries in trying to make a compelling case for their countries to put forward world-class investment destinations.

The African continent’s leading economic power has previously expressed its intention to join the BRICS bloc. For some reason, however, it did not submit an official application for membership before the group’s summit last August in South Africa, at the end of which six new countries – Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – were elected Participation invited.

In the run-up to the summit in Pretoria, around forty countries expressed interest in joining the intergovernmental organization. Fourteen countries, including North Africa’s second largest economy Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Palestine, Senegal, Thailand, Venezuela and Vietnam, have so far officially applied to join the group.

Although the six are scheduled to officially become members on January 1, 2024, Diana Mondino, the senior economic adviser to Argentine President-elect Javier Milei, who is critical of Brazil and China, told Reuters earlier this week that the six members will become members on January 1 to officially become a member in 2024. The country has no intention of joining the BRICS.

Milei said before his election that he would not have economic relations with communist countries.

The BRICS countries, whose stated aim is to challenge the global economic and institutional hegemony of the G7, have plans to dethrone the dominance of the US dollar by proposing the introduction of a new currency to settle payments in international trade. Currently, the founding member states of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) account for 42% of the world’s population and about 25% of global GDP.

Nevertheless, the BRICS member states only have 15% of the voting rights in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).