Nigeria aims to join BRICS bloc in two years in bid to boost its global economic clout

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is seeking the exclusive BRICS membership to enhance its global economic influence that would also allow it to loosen its ties with the West, according to experts.
According to Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, the West African country hopes to join the influential economic alliance within two years, stressing its strategic importance for Nigeria. Tuggar has also highlighted his country’s intention to join other beneficial groups with good and well-defined intentions and with an overarching objective of becoming an influential force on the world economic stage, as reported by Bloomberg. “Nigeria has come of age to decide for itself who her partners should be and where they should be, being multiple aligned is in our best interest,” the minister stated.
Originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, the BRICS group added new members, including Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates, shortly after its annual summit in August — and now Nigeria is looking to join this group as well. “We need to belong to groups like BRICS, like the G-20 and all these other ones because if there’s a certain criterion, say the largest countries in terms of population and economy should belong, then why isn’t Nigeria part of it?” Nigeria’s top diplomat added. The BRICS has been aggressively pushing to change the order of the world’s economic structure in a bid to dominate the global markets. The BRICS intends to achieve this goal by increasing its economic influence and this is where Nigeria, which boasts Africa’s largest economy, can present a strong case to join the group.