President Bola Tinubu is rallying support for Nigeria to join the G-20 family as a permanent member, seizing on the moment of the summit in India to lay its claim after the global bloc admitted the 55-member African Union as a body last week.
South Africa is the only individual member nation from the continent in the G-20.
Nigeria posits that as the largest African economy with growing geopolitical influence, it should be an individual member country.
“Nigeria is poised, able and willing to be a major player in this family of the G-20 and in shaping a new world, without whom, the family will remain incomplete,” Nigerian President Bola Tinubu told world leaders in New Delhi.
Nigeria, like Egypt and Mauritius, was one of nine “guest” countries invited by India to the meeting.
The West African nation of 200 million people could play “a major role” within the group, and wants to contribute to shaping “a more equitable world” by joining it, said Tinubu, whose pledge to double the annual growth rate to 6% has commenced with the overhaul of the country’s economic policy.